


Good Enough to Eat

by wasterella



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Attempted Murder, Blood, Disturbing Themes, I am probably missing tags but if you have concerns please ask..., M/M, Magic, Mentions of cannibalism but not depicted (again Levi's writing), Mind Control, Mostly related to Levi's writing, Murder, Supernatural - Freeform, Violence, writer!levi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-09-11 08:36:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 270,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8972311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasterella/pseuds/wasterella
Summary: There are two things to be known about living in Shiganshina: there’s no such thing as privacy, and gossip never dies. 
Eren Jaeger has lived in the same small town his entire life, and has always known this to be true. He’d never felt different, and had always believed that nothing exciting would ever happen, and every day would continue to be exactly the same as always. 
At least, he used to, until the arrival of a mysterious man. A newcomer who seems to have an interest in the Jaeger family, and keeps his secrets close. A man who never answers questions, and has a dark history that spells trouble. 
As demons from the past come racing to the present, Eren finds himself drawn into an inexplicable web of myths and deceit, protected by the one person he’s positive he shouldn’t trust.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Keyvvi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keyvvi/gifts).



> MERRY CHRISTMAS KEYVVI! Thank you for always being so amazing and supportive and for putting up with my constant chatter and like/reblog sprees!! I hope you pass a wonderful Holiday season!! 
> 
> I was always intending to write this for Keyvvi, and then the SNK Big Bang came up and I figured I would work better with a due date, so I started writing this with the intention of having it done in time for the Big Bang which coincided with Keyvvi's birthday!! Regrettably, things happened and I dropped out of the BB, but that is why my summary is hella weird. I couldn't be bothered to change it... So yes, thanks Keyvvi! \o/
> 
> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

Eren felt his heart beating up in his throat, sweat beginning to bead down the side of his face and outstretched hand shaking. He took a slow, cautious step back, raising his other hand to join the first in a pathetically sad attempt to calm his attacker down. His breathing sounded ragged to his own ears, mouth dry and adrenaline coursing through every inch of his body.

He took another step back, the heel of his left foot hitting a box. He didn’t risk a glance over his shoulder, he just shifted his foot ever so slightly to the side until the box was no longer there and slid his foot back.

“Please,” he said quietly, his voice strained and foreign to his own ears. “Please, just... let’s just stay calm.”

The other individual in the room growled low in his throat, taking a threatening step forward.

Eren could practically feel the pulse in his neck beating, strumming rapidly, confirming he was about to die.

Of all the ways he had imagined going out, being locked in the storage room at work with the new guy wasn’t on his list. In fact, despite Jean’s stupid theories, the new guy wasn’t anywhere  _on_ his list of possible ways to go. Neither was being locked in the storage room at work.

And yet, if he were to die like this, right here, right now, it would probably be one of the more exciting ways for him to go out.

But he wasn’t exactly looking to die right now, which was why he was slowly but surely trying to put some distance between them. The room was small, so there wasn’t much space to keep them apart, but he would take what he could get.

“It’s okay,” he said quietly—to himself, or the other, he didn’t know. “It’s okay. Let’s stay calm. We’re gonna be fine.” His back hit the wall, stopping his retreat. “Just fine,” he forced out.

The other took a threatening step forward, light coloured eyes locked on him like he was dinner. Eren felt his shirt sticking to his back with sweat, another bead of it sliding down the side of his face.

One step. Then another. And another. Slowly but surely, he was closing the distance.

Eren felt his knees give way and he slowly slid down the wall, pressing himself back against it. When his ass hit the ground, he sat there, eyes on the advancing figure, lungs beginning to constrict more and more in fear.

“Is this how it ends?” he asked quietly. “Is this how I go out?” He’d always considered himself to be a fighter. He was a strong believer in fighting to stay alive no matter what, but he had no options here. Any fight he attempted to start, he would lose. The storage room didn’t have anything he could use as a weapon, and if he tried to pull down one of the shelving units, the place was so small it would either crush them both, or the top would hit the opposite wall and the shelving unit would just rest above them both at an angle.

He was stuck, trapped, and legitimately about to die...

He didn’t want things to end this way. He still had so much he wanted to do.

Beat Jean at MarioKart at least once in his stupid life.

Be on the winning side of a paintball fight.

Go to university.

Make his sister proud.

Buy that smokin’ hot Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle he’d been saving for since tenth grade.

Leave this God forsaken hick town.

He pressed his head back against the wall, the other right in front of him. Turning his face away, he could feel hot breath on his cheek, the smell particularly foul from this close.

Clenching his eyes shut, Eren grit his teeth and curled his hands into fists.

“Levi,” he said, heart pounding and sweat coating his entire body like a second skin. “Levi, please. Snap out of it.”

Eren didn’t want to die.

But in this moment, what he wanted didn’t seem to be an option.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short; a little suspense is good for the soul ;) 
> 
> Chapter One will be up on Sunday, if at all possible. If not, then Monday. 
> 
> Happy Holidays! :)


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Voltron (c) DreamWorks Animation
> 
> Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays :)

Eren Jaeger lived in a tiny hick town called Shiganshina. He had lived in this boring, predictable town for exactly twenty-two years of his life. Considering he _was_  twenty-two, that meant he had lived in this boring, predictable, disappointing town for the entirety of his equally boring, predictable and disappointing life.

This town held just over eight-hundred people, most of whom Eren knew by name. Not by choice, it was just something that happened when you were the son of the only grocery store owner in the immediate area.

Realistically, they weren’t technically a town, given their population fell to just beneath the listed number for a town—they were more classed as a village—but nobody bothered to care about the technicalities. They considered themselves a town, so they referred to Shiganshina as one.

There was one gas station, one post office, one medical clinic, a small station with four officers, and one grocery store. The closest hospital was twenty minutes away, the closest theater was forty-five minutes away, and the closest mall was one hour and fifteen minutes away.

Eren had had to travel just under half an hour to go to grade school and middle school, and almost double that to high school. He visited the dentist just once a year, and couldn’t remember the last time he had seen an optometrist.

When he had turned thirteen, his father had employed him at his store as the bag boy. At fifteen, he had gotten promoted to stock boy and by sixteen he was a cashier. Once he’d graduated high school, he’d become one of the shift managers, his father attempting to groom him to take over the store so he could take a full-time position at the clinic.

This was Eren Jaeger’s life. He was going to grow old and die in this stupid little town, having taken over his father’s stupid store and living by himself in the woods like a horror-movie setup serial killer old man.

Not that he was thrilled about the “alone” aspect of it all, but given he wasn’t interested in anyone in town, he had pretty much resigned himself to dying sexless and alone.

Nothing exciting ever happened in this town. Nothing changed, no one evolved, everything was always the same old boring routine.

Until March 8th, 2016.

Eren had gotten off work at eight am, like he usually did when he was scheduled for the night shift. He’d been walking the eleven blocks home when he had almost gotten run over by a beat up sand-coloured Dodge truck, the driver swerving up onto the sidewalk and cutting Eren off, the passenger-side mirror narrowly missing hitting him in the face.

“What the fuck, asshole! You almost hit me!” he shouted through the open window, kicking at the already dented door.

“Dude! Get in! Now!”

“Fuck off, I’m going home to sleep!”

“What?” Jean Kirschstein demanded. “No, no, no! You’re not! You’re getting in!”

Eren began to walk around the front of the vehicle, intent on continuing down the street to get to his bed and some much-needed sleep.

“Eren! Didn’t you hear?! What am I saying, you were at work, of course you didn’t hear!”

_That_  got Eren’s attention and he stopped halfway around the truck, staring at Jean through the windshield.

“Hear what?”

“You know the old Grüber house up on Rose street?”

“The one that’s been empty since Johannes died eight years ago that everyone says is haunted? The one you dared me to spend the night in graduation night and then proceeded to try and traumatize me the entire time I was in there? The one we both got arrested for breaking and entering in and had to explain to my dad and your mom why we’d done that and had almost gotten charged just as we’d become adults? The one I got grounded over for a year because of your dumb ass? That house?” Eren asked dryly. “Yes, Jean, I know the old Grüber house up on Rose street. I don’t think it’s possible for me _not_  to know the old Grüber house up on Rose street.” He snorted and began to walk once more. “I’ve lived here alongside you my whole life, remember?”

“It sold an hour ago!”

Eren froze, staring at Jean and wondering if he’d misheard him.

“What?”

“It _sold_ , dude! Armin just called, his grandfather _just_  sold it and no one else knows!”

Eren bolted back around the truck and climbed into the passenger seat. He hadn’t even gotten the door closed before Jean backed up onto the road once more and gunned it down the street.

“Who bought it?” Eren asked, trying to get the buckle of his seatbelt into the latch, eyes on Jean. “Do you know?”

“Some rich dude.” His friend blew through a stop sign, another car slamming on its brakes to avoid hitting him and honking.

“Kirschstein!” the other driver shouted. “Your mother will hear about this!”

“You just cut Rico off,” Eren informed him.

“Who cares? This is a new person, Eren! A _new_  person! It’s been _years_  since anyone was stupid enough to move here!”

Eren agreed, considering it had been close to ten years since they’d seen any new faces in the area. The only new addition to their town in those ten years were the three new babies, two of which had been “accidents.”

Reaching Rose street, Jean turned abruptly and made his way up the long, winding road towards the end. Most of the houses in this area tended to be far apart, but the Grüber house was even moreso, having been built at the very top of the hill. When the trees were bare, it overlooked the whole town, but most of the time the leaves blocked everything from view.

When they turned the last bend, Jean had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the open back end of a large moving truck.

“I thought you said he’d just bought it,” Eren insisted, movers walking down the ramp with various boxes.

“He... did...” Jean said slowly.

The two of them shared a look before Jean backed up and moved to park in the grass by the edge of the forest, truck mostly hidden from the road but allowing a clear view of the house. They didn’t exit the car, they just watched the movers wander back and forth from the moving truck to the house.

A knock at Eren’s window had them both shout in fright, turning to find Armin Arlert standing there. Eren motioned for him to get in, reaching back to unlock the door and the blond opened it before falling onto the seat, shutting it behind him.

“I thought you said it just sold,” Jean insisted uncertainly, eyes still on the house. “I thought we’d get to see the guy while he was finishing up the paperwork, didn’t expect him to be moving in right away.”

“How long was he even looking into buying this place? He must’ve had his eye on it for a while to be all ready to move in.” Eren said.

“Grandpa says he called yesterday expressing interest so they set up a meeting today. He came by and said it was good enough, then asked for the price. Didn’t negotiate or anything, just asked for the closest lawyer and went to Pixis’ office to get all the papers in order, then the bank, and now he owns it.” Armin let out a slow breath. “Didn’t even need a loan or anything, just had a cheque drafted and handed it to grandpa. Johannes’ niece is more than happy to have gotten rid of it, so because he waived the inspection and just agreed to the price, he literally just... bought it.”

“Where is he?” Eren asked, craning his neck a little to see if he could spot someone who wasn’t a mover.

“He left. Said something about needing to help a friend find his way here. Also asked for directions to the closest metal worker’s house, though grandpa didn’t ask why so I can’t tell you what he was looking for.”

Eren was disappointed, which made him tired immediately because all the excitement was gone. He’d been expecting to see someone new, and now he was stuck in a car with Jean after being awake all night. He just wanted to go home and sleep.

He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, hoping this non-adventure was over quickly so he could go pass out. He should’ve known better than to trust Jean. Shifting in his seat, he unbuckled himself and tried to get comfortable, yawning hugely.

“So what’s his name? What’s he do? Where is he from? How come he bought the place today but already had all his stuff packed and ready to move?”

“If you’d take a breath and let him answer a question, maybe we’d both find out,” Eren grumbled, consciousness beginning to drift.

He vaguely heard Armin answer that he didn’t really know anything about the guy and then didn’t remember anything after that. He could only assume he fell asleep because he woke with a start and a rather large snort when Jean hit him hard in the arm and hissed his name.

“What is your major malfunction?” Eren snapped, yawning and rubbing at his eyes with both hands.

“He’s back.”

At those words from Armin, Eren let his hands drop and looked in the same direction as his friends.

The moving truck was gone, leaving Eren unsure of how long he’d been asleep. In its place, there was a large, brand new Ford, bright blue with shiny rims pulling up to the house. When it stopped, two people exited it, both seeming to be continuing an argument from within the vehicle.

One of the men was very tall and large with blond hair, bushy eyebrows Eren could see from where he was, and a hard expression. The other looked like a dwarf beside him, probably barely 5'3". His hair was jet black and he wore a bored expression, as if he had checked out of this argument a long time ago.

They weren’t moving away from the truck, speaking to one another over the truck bed. The tall blond man kept motioning towards the house, suggesting that was what they were arguing about.

“Which one is it?”

Jean had barely asked the question when both men at the front of the house stiffened and their heads turned sharply in the beat-up truck’s direction.

Armin and Jean ducked. Eren was still too tired to react quickly to anything so when the two men turned in their direction, Eren was still sitting there like an idiot. They stared at him and, not knowing what else to do, Eren did the only logical thing someone in his situation would do.

He waved.

“What are you doing?!” Jean hissed.

“They know we’re here, your truck is kind of a giveaway,” Eren insisted while the shorter of the two men moved towards the truck. He wasn’t exactly stomping, but it was obvious he was unhappy.

He headed towards Eren’s side of the vehicle and Eren started to roll down his window, assuming he wanted to talk. He _did_  want to talk, but apparently not through a window because once he’d stopped beside the car, he wrenched the door open, almost taking it clear off the car.

“This is private property, what are you doing here?”

Eren found himself trapped by the other’s hard blue gaze. Somehow, his fight or flight instincts were kicking in, adrenaline coursing through him and all the hairs on the back of his neck rising. This man was... intense. Eren tried to break eye contact, to look away, but he couldn’t, the tension rising and his instincts telling him to run, run now.

“Calm down, they’re just curious.”

The other man had appeared, forcing the one by Eren to turn and look at him.

The second they broke eye contact, Eren felt like he could breathe again, a weight lifting from across his chest. Then he made the mistake of looking at the other man.

That was even worse.

The weight settled back on him even more heavily, suffocating him, his brain screaming for him to run. He felt like he couldn’t breathe and wanted to cower in a corner.

It took a tremendous effort for him to tear his gaze away, but somehow he managed, his heart beating so fast he was worried there was something wrong with him.

When he turned to Jean, he saw that his friend was pale, and he looked as terrified as Eren felt. His ochre eyes were wide, the whites visible around the irises, and it looked like he’d stopped breathing.

“You boys must be from town. Probably just curious about the newcomer, right?”

It was the blond man who’d spoken again. Jean made no move to answer and while Eren couldn’t see Armin, he was unlikely to speak either.

Turning back to the two men standing right beside him, not even the damn door between them, Eren focussed green eyes on the taller man’s neck before answering.

“Yes,” he said, voice sounding strained. He licked his lips and tried again. “Sorry. We don’t see many newcomers.”

“I like my privacy,” the shorter man said, clearly the new owner of the house. “Get out, and don’t come back.”

He slammed the car door so hard the entire truck rocked. Then he turned and headed back for his own vehicle, the taller blond man following behind him.

Silence filled the car for only a few seconds before the engine roared to life and Jean backed up so fast Eren’s forehead collided with the dash. He let out a shout, clutching at his injury, pain sparking across his face.

Jean didn’t apologize, or even really acknowledge that he’d injured one of his passengers. He just cranked the wheel, shifted, and shot back down the hill, truck bouncing dangerously over a bump in the road.

Eren was still holding his face by the time they reached the bottom, Jean turning to head back towards their houses and slowing down ever so slightly. When Eren glanced over at him, he saw that his friend’s knuckles were white, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

Everyone stayed silent for a few long minutes before Armin finally spoke.

“So that wasn’t just me, right?”

“That was ten _fucking_  different kinds of terrifying,” Jean agreed, passing Eren’s family’s store and turning, presumably to drive Eren home. “It was like... like I couldn’t look away. It felt as if I would miss them moving to tear out my throat or something.” He turned to Eren briefly, face still pale. “Did you feel that too?”

“Yeah.” He turned to look out the window, stomach twisting anxiously. “I felt it, too.”

No one said a word the rest of the way to Eren’s house, the brunet muttering a farewell before exiting the truck and heading for the house. His sister was sitting on the front porch reading a book. She looked up to greet him, Eren grunting in response on his way into the house.

Rude, maybe, but she’d known him since they were very young so she was fairly used to it.

Mikasa Ackerman wasn’t his real sister; not by blood, anyway. When she had been five and Eren had been six, the Jaegers had found her wandering aimlessly down the street. Her parents had gone missing while she’d been playing in the yard and when she’d gone searching for her mother for a juice box, she’d ended up wandering towards the only other home she was familiar with, the Jaeger’s, when she wasn’t able to find her parents.

Despite a thorough investigation and exhaustive search efforts, her parents had never been found. They were presumed dead, and Eren wasn’t sure if anyone had ever found out what had happened to the Ackerman family.

With nowhere else to go, Mikasa had ended up with the Jaeger’s, given they were the Ackermans’ oldest friends. After two years of no news, the Jaegers officially adopted her and life had continued on in their little town.

To date, the Ackermans’ disappearance was the worst thing that had ever happened in Shiganshina. It was something Mikasa still had to live with every day, since the very sight of her often had the older people whispering and the younger people staring.

Eren generally got in trouble for shouting at the elderly and beating on the teenagers.

“Were you off looking for the newcomer?” Mikasa asked, having followed Eren into the house, book in one hand while she continued to read.

A grunt from Eren, the brunet trudging up the stairs.

“And? Was it as exciting as you’d hoped?”

He stopped at the landing, Mikasa having to halt a step behind him so she didn’t walk into him. Eren frowned before turning to her, green eyes locked on her brown ones.

“Have you ever...?” he trailed off, not even sure what he wanted to ask. Had she ever looked at someone and felt ready to die?

She stood there, watching him, waiting for him to continue. After a few seconds, he muttered that he was going to bed and disappeared into his room, shutting the door behind him.

They’d just gotten scared because the men were unknown and one of them was the size of a house. It was nothing, completely normal. The next time he saw them, he was sure things would be fine. For now, all he cared about was sleeping, which is why he fell onto his bed without bothering to change, hugged his pillow, and willed himself into unconsciousness.

* * *

“Dude!”

Eren didn’t know how long he had been sleeping, but he definitely knew it wasn’t long enough by any means. He may not have been working the following day, but that didn’t mean he wanted to lack in sleep. Especially since he was opening the day after.

The weight on top of him shifted off briefly before falling back onto him heavily, beginning to bounce up and down. One knee kept jabbing painfully into his ribs and he wished he had the energy to reach out and punch his friend in the kidneys.

“Dude! Dude! Dude! Wake up! Guess what! Guess what I found out!”

“The moment of your death?” Eren grumbled from beneath the covers, face buried in his pillow. “Because I can see that, too. It’s in about five minutes if you don’t leave me alone.”

“No, no, we need to talk! This is huge! I swear, it’s worth waking up for!” He had the audacity to yank the blankets off Eren’s head. “Connie just told me this!”

“I’m sleeping,” was Jean’s whined response. Eren wondered if it was possible to make someone spontaneously combust, but then again, if he did that right now he would probably set his own bed on fire.

“The new guy went to see Connie’s dad to commission something and you’ll never guess what it is!”

And he didn’t _care_  either, but God knew his friend wasn’t going to stop bugging him until he got his attention. Eren was determined to just pretend he didn’t exist, grabbing his pillow, rolling over onto his stomach so that Jean slid off him and onto the mattress instead, and then covering his head with the fluffy item.

“Can’t you go bother your other friends?”

“I can’t, I don’t have any.”

_I wonder why,_ Eren thought, rather savagely. He must’ve gotten at least a _marginal_  amount of sleep, because if he hadn’t, he would have said those words aloud.

“Dude! So! Connie’s dad got commissioned, and you’ll never guess what for!”

“If I pretend to try, will you go away?” Eren’s muffled voice asked.

“No.”

With a huge sigh, since he was already awake _anyway_ , and God knew Jean wasn’t going to leave any time soon, Eren grunted and propped himself up on his elbows, pillow falling to the side so he could turn to regard his friend.

Considering when they’d parted earlier he had looked ready to vomit from fright, he seemed particularly bright-eyed and mischievous right now.

“What?” he asked, wanting to get this over with. “What did you find out?”

“That new guy went to commission a _cage_!”

Eren blinked at Jean, feeling confused. A cage? What kind of weirdo commissioned a cage?

In a way, it was good for Connie’s dad, because being a metal-worker, he didn’t get many commission jobs close to home. He tended to be more in request for welding and re-piping. Having someone request something like a cage would allow him to work at home for a while with some outside jobs in between.

“A cage?” he asked, focussing back on the conversation at hand as opposed to how happy he felt for Connie’s father.

“Yeah, dude! A fucking _cage_! That’s crazy! Do you think he’s like, a cage fighter? Oh, oh! Or maybe he’s a cage _dancer_!” Jean grinned. “Maybe he needs a cage to practice in.”

“It hasn’t occurred to you that maybe, I don’t know, he wants to kidnap someone and have a place to keep them?”

Jean stared at him for a few seconds, as if his brain were slowly attempting to process the new information he’d just been given. To Eren, that seemed to make sense. What other reason would he have to commission a cage?

Then again, it would be idiotic for him to commission said cage if he was kidnapping someone in the area, because everyone would immediately think of him the second someone’s disappearance became known.

Disadvantage—or in this case, advantage—of living in a small town.

“No,” Jean said, forcing Eren out of his distracted thoughts. “I’m going to choose to be optimistic and insist you’re just morbid and shorty’s a cage dancer.”

“Tell him that to his face,” Eren said, falling back down fully on his bed and tugging at his blankets so he could get them back over his head. Jean was sitting on the corner of it so it wouldn’t obey his wishes.

“I’m good not seeing that creepy motherfucker ever again.” Jean let out a weird sound. “I’m not kidding Eren, that guy gave me the creeps.”

“You’re the one who thinks he’s a cage dancer. I think he’s a kidnapper, remember?”

“Well,” Jean grunted, getting to his feet and thus freeing Eren’s blanket, allowing him to yank it over his head, “I’m heading to Armin’s to see if I can convince him to break into his grandfather’s study for the guy’s name. I wanna do some investigating.”

“You woke me up for that?” Eren asked. He didn’t receive a response, suggesting Jean had left.

And good riddance.

Then again, after an hour of attempting to fall asleep again to no avail, Eren wished he’d stuck around so he could murder him. As it was, he just rolled out of bed and finally checked the time, feeling even more bitter when he realized it was just past noon. That meant Jean had come to wake him up close to eleven. Considering he’d gotten off work at eight and didn’t know how long he’d been waiting in Jean’s truck earlier, that meant he’d gotten a maximum of two hours of sleep.

Crashing again would be appreciated, and almost expected, but his body kept insisting it was “awake time” so he knew he’d never manage it.

Yawning widely while heading for his bathroom, he grabbed his phone from his pocket, rubbing his left eye while pressing his thumb to the button below the screen. It unlocked on his messages with one of his friends, who was actually courteous enough to leave him alone so he could sleep. Something Jean had never managed to figure out.

He texted a response to her last message before tossing his phone onto the counter in the bathroom and beginning to strip, leaving his clothes in a pile on the floor. He was in the mood for a hot, relaxing shower and had even almost managed it before he heard knocking on his bedroom door, one foot in the tub.

He turned to the door, hesitating before shutting off the tap and calling out a response.

“Eren? Jean says you need to go meet him and Armin at Hannes’.” Mikasa sounded annoyed, which meant Jean had probably been hounding her to get Eren out of bed.

“I’m about to shower.”

He heard her speaking quietly, obviously on the phone, and then she sighed again. “He says this is more important than your hygiene regimen.”

The newcomer’s arrival had turned Jean into a veritable pain in the ass, and Eren knew he was just going to get worse as time went on, especially if Eren refused.

He debated it for only a few seconds before realizing he was much too tired to debate anything and just gave up, exiting his bathroom and muttering that he was getting his clothes on. He wasn’t sure Mikasa heard him through the bedroom door, but she spoke into the phone, suggesting she knew him well enough to guess he’d decided it wasn’t worth Jean’s annoyance if he refused.

It took him much too long to get dressed, but he was working mostly on auto-pilot by then. When he finally exited his room and trudged down the stairs, he figured out why his shirt was choking him and his feet hurt.

His shirt was on backwards.

His shoes were on the wrong feet.

He was sitting on the bottom step fixing the shoes when Mikasa practically floated past him, making him jump in surprise. She said nothing, reaching to grab her keys off the hall table and turning to watch him.

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You’re coming? But you hate Jean.”

“Maybe, but I love you, and I don’t need you crashing from exhaustion.”

Offering her a small smile of thanks, he pulled his arms into his shirt, twisted it around, and then stuck his arms back out, standing to head for the door. Mikasa followed him outside and they both climbed into his sister’s black Honda civic.

Eren snoozed the whole way to the coffee shop, only opening his eyes when Mikasa had parked outside Hannes’ Premium Coffee. Eren didn’t know what made it “premium,” exactly, but when you lived in a small town, it was hard to be picky.

They had barely taken one step through the door when Eren slammed on the brakes, Mikasa almost walking into him but managing to stop herself at the last second. The big blond guy was sitting at one of the back tables, appearing to be in deep conversation with what looked like a woman. From the back, anyway, Eren couldn’t see their face, but they had long hair up in a messy ponytail, so he was assuming it was a woman.

The man hadn’t noticed him yet. Eren started to turn so he could leave when Jean was suddenly beside him, wrenching him to the side and shoving him almost violently into a booth before wedging himself in beside him. Armin was sitting across from them looking exhausted, and Eren could only assume that without Eren as his usual wing man, Jean had decided to drag Armin around all day instead.

Well, whatever part of the day he’d managed to survive _without_  Eren, apparently. So all of two hours, if that.

“Mikasa,” Jean said, perking up immensely at the sight of her. “Lovely to see you, as always.”

She said nothing while sliding into the booth beside Armin, offering him a nod in greeting and mostly ignoring Jean.

Eren always found Jean and Mikasa’s relationship interesting. He knew she didn’t _hate_  him, because it was always very obvious when she disliked someone—Eren had one friend in particular she absolutely loathed, so he knew what that looked like. She and Jean just had a… weird relationship. Jean liked to flirt with her—badly, but he tried—and Mikasa liked to pretend she didn’t realize he was flirting.

If Jean would admit one way or the other how he felt about Mikasa, Eren felt like he would be able to move on with his life, but as it stood, he still had no idea how Jean truly felt. All he knew about Mikasa was that she found Jean’s attempts at flirting really painful because the secondhand embarrassment made her want to cringe.

“You’re getting obsessive,” Eren informed Jean, returning to the present situation. “That’s a condition, you know that, right?”

“Dude, you don’t get it, that girl or guy or non-binary person is totally fucked up!”

“Jean, that’s so rude!” Armin snapped. It was so out of character for him that both Eren and Mikasa stared, and even Armin himself seemed surprised at his own tone.

Eren’s eyes shifted to the two people conversing. The blond man was scowling, holding a take-away cup between two large hands, lips barely moving while he spoke. The coffee shop was loud in general, but usually enough sound carried that Eren should be able to catch every other word. Not this time, apparently. The man must’ve been speaking extremely quietly.

“Did you just stake out at the bottom of the hill and wait for this guy to leave so you could follow him?” Eren asked, stifling a yawn behind one hand.

“No,” Jean insisted, slouching in his seat but keeping his eyes on the two across the small space. “Armin and I tried to get the newbie’s name, but his grandfather’s working today so we couldn’t get into his files.”

The look on Armin’s face suggested he was more than okay with that, but he didn’t say anything.

“After that failed, we went to grab a bite at Snack Attack where we bumped into that person,” he nodded towards the two unknown individuals, obviously referencing the one they hadn’t met that morning. “They were asking around on how to get to Rose street, and since we’d never seen them before, obviously they’re friends with Mr. Crazy up at the Grüber house.”

“He bought the house, it’s not the Grüber house anymore,” Armin interjected.

Jean waved his words away, continuing to speak. “Obviously, me being the good Samaritan I am, when other people were rushing away avoiding eye contact because they’re a bunch of xenophobic assholes, I graciously offered my assistance.”

“Probably hoping to score if it was a girl,” Eren interjected. Armin looked crossed between wanting to laugh and wanting to keep his friendship with Jean intact.

“What _ever_! Do you want to hear my story, or not?”

“I was perfectly happy sleeping,” Eren said dryly. “But if you must.”

Jean flipped him the bird before continuing, eyes on the two unknowns once more. “Anyway, I go up to them to offer my help, and get this: freaky eyes just like the other two!” Jean flailed slightly before pointing at his own eyes with both hands.

Eren frowned at that, looking across at the blond man and the other person with him. So all three of these new people had that effect on others? He didn’t understand why that was. All he knew was he never wanted to feel that terrified ever again.

“I’m still surprised you even noticed,” Armin said, hands clenched together on the table and gaze lowered. “I was too distracted by what happened to their face to notice.”

“Why? What happened to their—”

Eren hadn’t even finished the inquiry when blue eyes shot up and locked onto his own, the blond man staring right at him. He was hit with that feeling once more, the one where he wanted to either vomit, cry, curl up in a ball or all of the above. His hands began to sweat immediately, he felt all the colour draining from his face, and a panic so intense began to rise within him that he legitimately wanted to climb over the table and bolt for the door.

That was when the other individual turned, their sex just as unknown now as it had been when their back was turned. Eren suddenly understood what Armin meant, because Eren also didn’t look into their eyes immediately.

For one thing, it took him a few seconds to manage to tear his gaze away from Mr. Big and Blond, but once he managed that and focussed on the other person…

Three diagonal scars ran the length of their face, as if they’d gotten slashed by a bear or a cougar. They were clearly old, the scars stark white against the tanned skin, but they definitely made it so that Eren took a few long seconds to look them in the eye.

The scars, as well as the glasses they wore, made it harder for Eren to be quite as terrified. Did his gut twist uncomfortably while all the blood drained from his face? Yes. Yes it did. But it wasn’t anywhere as intense as it was with the blond man.

Nobody seemed as intense as the blond man, who made Eren want to fall to his knees and beg for his life. While Mr. Grumpy and Antisocial up on Rose street was intimidating and had also terrified Eren, he didn’t seem to elicit as strong of an emotion as this blond man.

Whoever they were, Eren didn’t like them. Not at all.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Eren muttered, trying to push at Jean.

That was when Mikasa stood up and wandered over to the table, despite the other three hissing at her to come back.

“I apologize about my brother and his friends,” she said, voice carrying easily across the coffee shop. “We don’t see very many strangers, and they’re pretty childish intellectually.”

Eren would’ve been insulted by that if he didn’t suddenly realize something. Mikasa was staring right at him. Right at Mr. Big and Blond. Their eyes were locked on one another while he smiled amicably and insisted it was okay, and that it didn’t bother him or his friend.

Making sure he wasn’t imagining things, he turned to look at Jean, and found him gaping at them. His mouth was hanging open and everything. When he glanced at Armin, his friend looked just as stunned as Eren felt.

They all sat there watching Mikassa chat with the two strangers, the scarred one becoming louder and very energetic. After about five minutes, Mikasa inclined her head respectfully and returned to the booth, sliding back into her seat beside Armin.

“His name is Erwin Smith, he owns a large construction company out in Trost. His companion is a close friend named Hanji Zoe, who is a scientist and mostly came out because they wanted to visit the area now that their friend lives here. The guy who bought the place on Rose is named Levi Ackerman, he’s that really popular author who writes the controversial thriller books Pixis is obsessed with. Both of them came out here to try and talk some sense into their friend because they think he made a bad choice deciding to leave Trost. He won’t budge on the subject so they’re contemplating whether it’s worth getting a hotel and trying again tomorrow or if they should leave him be for a few days and try again later.”

The three boys stared at her incredulously, Mikasa giving them all a weird look.

“What?”

“How were you not terrified?!” Jean hissed, eyes wide and hands gripping the table tightly.

Eren’s gaze shifted to the strangers—Erwin and Hanji—when he heard Hanji choke on their drink, something like a laugh escaping them. Erwin himself just smirked, taking another sip of his coffee.

“What do you mean?” Mikasa asked, confused. “Terrified of what?”

“You know! With the eyes, and the gut twisting, and the intense feeling of someone reaching into your very being and tearing at your soul!”

Mikasa still looked confused, clearly not sharing their opinion that the other two were scary.

And they weren’t! Eren was perfectly fine when he wasn’t looking them in the eye! Sure, Erwin was big, but he kind of reminded Eren of his dad. Big and imposing, but a super nice guy. And Hanji seemed kind of fun, as well. It was legitimately only when their eyes locked that Eren wanted to die.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. They seemed perfectly fine to me,” Mikasa said, getting to her feet. “It’s my turn to cook dinner and I wanted to get some chicken in the slow-cooker. Eren, let’s go.”

Jumping quickly to his feet and practically crawling over Jean to get out of the booth, Eren was _more_  than happy to oblige, hoping to never see any of these people ever again.

* * *

The next time Eren saw any of the strangers, it was Mr. Short and Grumpy, and he wasn’t particularly happy where it was he saw him. Walking into work for his shift on Monday evening, about eight days since the newcomer’s arrival, he stopped just inside the doorway when he saw him standing at the counter with his father. The latter was rubbing at his mouth while reading over a few pages of paper.

Somehow, that didn’t bode well, and Eren moved closer when his father finally spoke.

“You’re a little over-qualified for a job like this. We’re a small town, you wouldn’t be doing more than stocking shelves and manning the till.”

_Oh Jesus fucking Christ,_ Eren thought, horrified. Was he trying to get a job here?! But why?! Mikasa had said that he was some weird famous writer, and considering he’d been able to buy the house on Rose without even having to take out a loan, he obviously wasn’t lacking in funds. _So why is he trying to work here?!_

Eren wanted to stay and listen to his reasoning but the man, Levi, turned and stared right at him. Not needing to wet his pants in front of his father, Eren quickly turned away and headed for the office to drop off his bag and grab his work shirt.

When he did the night shifts, it was just him. The day shifts usually had a manager and a cashier. Sometimes there was a bag boy when his father felt like being nice and helping people out, but usually it was just the two. Night shifts were only a manager unless it was a stock-night or inventory. Tonight was neither, so Eren would be working alone. Which he was fine with, for the most part. It got boring after a few hours, but he had Tumblr and Netflix, so he passed the time. It let him catch up on shows. It was nights where the wi-fi went down that he wanted to claw at the counter.

Changing out of his casual clothes and into his work shirt and closed-toe shoes, he headed back out towards the front and found that Levi was gone, only his father there still rubbing at his mouth.

“Who was that?” Eren asked as casually as he could, moving behind the counter to join his dad and read over his shoulder.

Grisha Jaeger set the resume aside before Eren could get much of a look at it. “Levi Ackerman,” he said. “Looking for a job. He’s new in town. But you knew that already.”

It was hard to play dumb when Jean had been going insane the past few days looking him up online. He practically had a dossier on the guy, not that Eren was interested.

Much.

“Why is he looking for a job here?” Eren asked, moving past his father to pull the till out so he could count it down to fifty dollars.

“Says it helps him write when he has other things going on. He just wants to work cash three times a week for a few hours and write when there’s no one here. Thomas is looking to work in Stohess so I figured there was no harm.”

Eren accidentally knocked over the till, quarters and dimes scattering across the counter.

“Wait, you hired him?!”

“Why not?”

“But he’s not—I mean—But you said he was overqualified!”

“He is,” Grisha said, turning to him and crossing his arms, pointedly looking at the still rolling coins until Eren finally turned back and began gathering them all up. “But he wants a job, and with Thomas leaving, I figured an extra pair of hands couldn’t hurt. My hours are increasing at the clinic, and I doubt you’re looking for more hours here.”

Eren winced at the thought, definitely more than okay not being assigned more hours. But he didn’t want to get stuck working with him, either. The day after next, Eren was on the day shift.

With Thomas. If his shift got replaced with the newcomer, then Eren would be stuck with him for, at minimum, five hours!

“You didn’t… Wasn’t he intense?” Eren asked after a brief hesitation. Was it only him in his family feeling affected?

“No, he was definitely intense, but some people are just like that.”

Oh. So not just him. As far as he’d heard, anyone who had run into Levi, as well as his two friends, confirmed that they were terrifying and made people feel uncomfortable. To date, the only person who disagreed was Mikasa. She insisted the two she’d met were perfectly fine and didn’t understand what everyone was talking about.

Having picked up all the coins, Eren was about to start counting down the till when he paused, licking his lips and trying to word his next question very carefully.

“Hey dad?”

“Hm?” His father was scratching his temple with a pen, looking over the schedule, probably trying to fit Mr. Grumpypants in.

“His name… Well, I was just thinking, or wondering moreso, about the fact that, you know…” He winced, doing a poor job of wording this properly. “His last name is Ackerman,” he finally said.

There was an uncomfortable silence that met these words, and Eren regretted them immediately. He knew it was a common name, outside the little town anyway. But it was just very odd that the newcomer happened to have similar features, as well as the same last name as Mikasa, and—according to Jean’s research—was only six years older than them. Was it possible Mikasa’s parents had had another child and sent it away for whatever reason before having Mikasa? There was no way Eren would ever bring this up with her, but if he was honest, he’d been thinking about it a lot since finding out the man’s name.

What were the odds? In a town this small, had he not been an outsider, there wouldn’t be any question about who his parents were. Hell, even _as_  an outsider, it made him feel like there was no question.

“Those are thoughts best kept to yourself,” Grisha finally said, his voice low and the tone final. “Don’t cause unnecessary grief for your sister.”

Eren took that to mean exactly what those words implied: This topic is closed for discussion.

He just went back to counting down the till, putting the extra money in one of their bank bags from under the counter and sealing it before moving back out from the till area so he could go put the excess in the safe. His father only deposited it once a week when he made the run to the next town, so for now it would sit in the back.

When he returned to the front, it looked like his father was done with the schedule, writing it down on another sheet of paper for his home records.

Eren moved to glance at it, letting out a small, irritated sigh when he saw he _was_  working with the new guy on Wednesday. He also noticed he was working more than usual, pulling a double shift on Thursday, and having no day off all week.

“What’s with the schedule?” he asked, trying not to sound as grumpy as he felt. So much for not picking up extra hours.

“I’m working at the clinic. Rico needs to be home more to take care of her mother, she’s struggling to find the time. I offered to help her out.”

The downside of his father being the only store owner in town, as well as one of two doctors. Why couldn’t Levi have been a doctor instead? Why did Eren have to get stuck with the guy?

Not to mention he still didn’t seem to have forgiven the trespassing, as innocent as it had been.

“Right,” Eren muttered.

His father disappeared while Eren pulled his phone out and jumped up onto the back counter, pulling open YouTube so he could watch a few videos. Two customers came in while his father was in the back and Eren rang them through, waving goodnight.

He used to think it was weird, keeping the store open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, but once he became older, as much as he hated it, it made a lot of sense. People always needed things, and especially the teenagers liked to have the option of going out to buy something whenever they pleased. The store always had a steady stream of people coming in and out, no matter the hour. It was why they had to forewarn people well in advance for unscheduled closures, or people got _really_  cranky.

“All right, I’m heading out.” Grisha said, walking back to the front and stopping beside the counter. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“In passing, anyway,” Eren said, frowning down at his phone. Tumblr was being a bitch and refusing to load.

“Have a good night.”

“Mm.”

The door opened, then closed, and Eren was alone. He just stayed seated on the back counter, fighting with Tumblr until his screen lit up, interrupting his attempts. Grinning at the name staring back at him, he answered the call, putting the phone to his ear.

“Rawr,” he said in way of greeting.

_“Terrifying,”_ was his almost monotonous response. _“I’m going to a party tonight in Ragako, you interested?”_

“Can’t. Working.”

_“Seriously? You’re a real wet blanket.”_

“Hey, that’s not my fault,” Eren insisted. “That’s on my dad.”

_“Lame. Tomorrow? Movie?”_

“I’m busy tomorrow.”

_“That means you’re doing something with **her**.”_

He didn’t say anything to that. He hated that she and Mikasa didn’t get along, it made his friendship with her more complicated.

The door opened and he glanced up, nodding to Keith, who had just walked in. The man looked as intimidating as ever.

“Look Annie, I need to go. I’ll call you later okay?”

_“You better,”_  Annie Leonhart said. _“Try not to be a huge loser tonight. And stay off Tumblr, there are **Voltron** spoilers.”_

He just made a few annoyed, incomprehensible noises and then hung up, shoving his phone in his pocket.

His eyes strayed to the schedule and he scowled. He was going to have a really bad week.

* * *

“Eren.”

A grunt in response.

“Eren, wake up.”

Another grunt, followed by a shift that brought one hand up, clutching the edge of his blanket and pulling it over his head.

“Eren, Jean ate all your green tea Pocky.”

“He what?!” Eren threw the blankets off himself, turning to Mikasa incredulously, murder in his eyes. “I was _saving_  those!”

“Good thing he didn’t, then.” She held out a piece of paper. “Here. Errand from dad. Figured you could do this while I stop by the clinic to make sure he’s eaten lunch before we go.”

Eren couldn’t believe she’d been so cruel. Or that he’d fallen for it. That seemed a little embarrassing, now that he considered it. He blamed it on lack of sleep.

Sighing and covering his head again, he heard Mikasa shift and then her footsteps retreated, suggesting she had left the room. He knew he couldn’t sleep the day away, considering he was supposed to be hanging out with her, and had to work again later. Half of the night shift, then his mother would take over for a few hours since Eren was doing the day shift tomorrow. This was going to be a really bad week sleep-schedule-wise.

Conceding defeat, he wrenched the blanket off and then turned his head, seeing the piece of paper sitting on his nightstand. Reaching out for it, he opened the folded note, realizing there were two put together. The first was a copy of the schedule, so he flipped to the second page and sat bolt upright.

_Eren,_  
_Mr. Ackerman didn’t leave us with a phone number, so I’ve been unable to reach him to provide him with a copy of the schedule. Normally this would be fine, but considering his first shift is tomorrow, it’s likely we won’t see him before then. I need you to go up to his place and drop this off for me._  
_Dad._

His father was trying to murder him. That was the only explanation. Why else would he ask him to drive up to the crazy man’s house? He probably had a shotgun, now! He’d pull the whole, “Get off my lawn, you young whippersnapper!” bit and then blow Eren’s head off!

Groaning, he lay back down and struggled to convince himself he needed to get out of bed. Not even awake five minutes and already his day was ruined. All he had going for him was hanging out with Mikasa before his shift.

Realizing that laying in bed was eating into that time, he let out an annoyed grunt and then forced himself to his feet. The sooner he made it up to Mr. Grumpypants’ house, the sooner he made it back down. So he just shuffled grumpily to the bathroom and got himself ready for the day. It was only just past noon, so he knew he’d be exhausted for the entirety of the night, but it wasn’t anything new to him. He’d been doing this for years.

He was walking out of his room, having just opened the door, when he almost got hit in the face. Mikasa had her arm raised, clearly about to knock to ensure he was up, but she managed to check herself at the last second.

“Did you want to borrow my car? Mum took hers to Trost and dad drove to the clinic. It’s a shorter walk for me to the clinic.”

“Sure, thanks,” Eren grumbled, holding out his hand so she could drop her keys into it. “I’ll pick you up on the way back, so just wait for me there.”

“All right.”

Eren used to have a truck. Operative words being “used to.” He still wasn’t sure what had happened, but he and Annie had been out together, and everything had been fine, and suddenly he’d woken up with his truck smashed against a tree and Annie unconscious and bleeding beside him. Thankfully, there had been no lasting damage to either of them, but his truck was totalled and he couldn’t afford a new one without dipping into the funds he’d set aside for his motorcycle. The town was small enough that he could walk everywhere, so he’d opted for saving his money.

Though Mikasa and Annie had always hated one another—for reasons unknown—that event had amped up the hatred. Mikasa was adamant that it was Annie’s fault they had crashed, and Annie’s father was furious with Eren for his carelessness. Eren himself honestly didn’t remember what had happened, so he took full responsibility.

The odd thing was, most fathers would be against their daughter seeing someone who had supposedly almost killed them, but Annie’s father somehow thought that forcing Eren to spend _more_  time with Annie was a more suitable punishment. He supposed her father saw it as more of an “eternal servitude” kind of deal. Eren felt so bad about what had happened that he’d do anything for her.

Which he’d already used to do anyway. He and Annie had always had a rather odd relationship, even by his standards.

“Jean called,” Mikasa informed him while they headed down the stairs, snapping him out of the past. “He wanted to join us today. I said no, but he’ll likely show up anyway.”

“Well, if he does, he’ll probably bring Armin.”

She said nothing to this, the two of them exiting the house without bothering to lock the door. A small town like this had very little crime, and even when something happened, the perpetrator was usually caught within a few hours. Eren waved to Mikasa, reminding her he’d pick her up on his way back, and then climbed into the car. He headed in the opposite direction of his sister once he was on the street, and his hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, panic slowly building.

He was going to see the scary guy. He didn’t even know _why_  he was so scary! There was just something about him... it was like being face to face with a lion and being told to stay. Eren was pretty sure he wouldn’t stay. He was pretty fucking sure he’d be running for his stupid life.

It was odd, though. If it had just been the one person, he would believe his father’s words from the night before about some people just being that intense. But it _wasn’t_  just Levi. His two friends were the same. It was like playing a game of chicken with death and hoping he banked left before you crashed into each other. He’d only experienced the feeling twice, and it was more than enough for him.

He made the decision to ensure he didn’t look into Levi’s face. If he avoided eye contact, maybe he could have a normal conversation with him. An awkward one, considering not making eye contact while speaking was weird, but it was better than him clamming up and hyperventilating like a little girl.

His heart began thumping double time in his chest when he turned onto Rose street, foot letting up on the gas without his consent. The longer it took him to get there, the more time he had to get used to the uncomfortable feeling. He just wanted to be sure he wouldn’t completely freak out, because that would be embarrassing.

Reaching the top, he’d been debating just stopping at the front door, hurling the schedule at it, and then driving off, but that idea came to screeching halt when he found Levi outside. It looked like he’d just arrived home moments before Eren’s arrival.

He was wearing thick worker’s gloves on both hands while standing at the back of his truck. There was an item in the cab half-covered by a blanket, and it looked like he’d been ready to haul it out when Eren’s presence had been noticed.

Levi turned, and Eren immediately looked anywhere but at him, eyes focussed on the shiny exposed corner of whatever was under the blanket. As he got closer, he realized it was the corner of one of the pieces of a large cage, suggesting it was the item he had commissioned from Connie’s father, just as Jean had said.

The sick feeling in his stomach began to rise and he had to swallow the discomfort back down. He stopped the car a few feet from the truck and winced when Levi began stomping over. Eren didn’t need him ripping this door off the car so he hastily unbuckled himself and climbed out just as Levi reached him.

“What are you doing here?” Levi demanded, reaching out and pushing the car door to slam it. The action made the whole car rock, and Eren couldn’t help but wonder what this guy ate. He was so short and tiny looking, but apparently he had hidden muscles under the long-sleeved shirt he was wearing, because he seemed to always make the cars he touched rock on the spot.

“I—”

“I told you before, this is private property! I don’t want you coming around here! Leave!”

Eren was more than happy to obey, especially considering there were no witnesses to his murder and/or kidnapping right then. But instead, he squared his shoulders, feeling a little better being taller than him, and focussed his attention on Levi’s left ear. It was as close to his eyes as he could focus on without it being weird.

“You didn’t leave a phone number—”

“I don’t give out my phone number, people calling is distracting.”

Eren struggled not to snap at him for interrupting. When he wasn’t staring him in the eyes, the other wasn’t nearly as intimidating as he thought he was.

“Well, dad wanted to give you the schedule and since you won’t give him your number, he can’t call to give it to you. So here.” He shoved the piece of paper into the other’s chest, expecting it to make him take a step back with the force he used. Instead, it legitimately just hurt his hands. Was the guy built like a house or something?

Levi didn’t thank him, he barely even acknowledged the action. He just pulled the sheet away from his chest and looked down at it before grunting.

“Terrific. Who’s this Eren idiot I’ll be working with every shift, then?”

“That’d be me,” Eren said dryly.

“Like I said. Idiot.” Levi folded up the piece of paper and shoved it into one of his back pockets. He glanced back up at Eren, so the latter shifted his gaze back to one of the man’s ears. “Is that all?”

“Why does a multi-millionaire writer need to have a side-job?” Eren blurted out before he could stop himself. “I mean, what, you don’t make enough money with your books?”

Eren was positive he wasn’t going to receive an answer, and for a few seconds, it looked like he was correct. But then, Levi seemed to resign himself to having to answer at least some things, because he spoke.

“I can’t just sit at home and write, I need a distraction and working a menial part-time job like the one at your store is going to help me write better. It keeps my brain focussed.”

“Oh,” Eren said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Um, yeah, dad mentioned you could bring your laptop to work and stuff. I mean, I do the same thing really. As long as you get your actual work done and don’t ignore the customers, you can do pretty much whatever you want.”

“Thanks boss,” Levi said, voice darkening. “Are we done now? I have things to get done.” He turned to head back towards his truck and Eren followed him with his eyes. He caught sight of the uncovered corner again and really had to wonder why he needed a cage.

Levi turned when he reached the truck bed, obviously aware that Eren hadn’t moved.

“Cage fighting?” Eren asked casually, shoving his hands in his pockets.

A scowl was his answer to that question. “That isn’t any of your business. This is a private matter, and you have no reason to be snooping around.”

“Private?” Eren asked. “Hate to break it to you, but here, everybody knows everything about everyone, and you’ll learn that very quickly.” He turned to open his door so he could climb back into his car. “If you’re looking for privacy, you came to the wrong town.”

He sat down and slammed the door, ignoring the hard glare he knew he was getting from the other man. Starting the car up once more, he turned and began driving away. He’d barely made it towards the end of the long drive when he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Levi carrying one entire side of the cage towards his front door.

Eren almost slammed on the brakes right then and there. He was carrying solid fucking metal _alone_  over one shoulder like it was fucking nothing!

“Who the hell _is_ this guy?!”


	3. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Voltron (c) DreamWorks Animation
> 
> I love my chapter titles in this one. So original.   
> I'm gonna be busy Sat/Sun so please enjoy an early chapter. Sorry if it's not exciting, cutting the chapters up has been a nightmare in this one so far \o/

“Eren!”

Letting out a shout, Eren almost fell off the stool he was standing on, having been trying to pull something off the top shelf near the back of the store so he could restock the candy bars at the front.

“Dude! Are you trying to kill me?!” Eren shouted, kicking out one leg and only just barely missing Jean’s face. “I could’ve broken my neck!”

“This is important!”

“It’s _you_ , it’s _never_  important!” Eren snapped, heart still beating somewhere up in his throat. “What do you want?”

“Come to the front! I brought Mikasa and Armin!”

If he’d driven all the way out there with his sister and Armin, it was about the newcomer. Even thinking about him made Eren’s stomach twist uncomfortably. He couldn’t stop thinking about that afternoon, when he’d seen him carrying the side of the cage like it weighed nothing.

“Hey Jean, how heavy do you think a cage is?”

“What do you mean?” his friend asked, holding his hands out for Eren to put the box he’d been reaching for in them.

He jumped off the stool and took the box back, heading for the front once more. “Well, you know that cage Levi commissioned from Connie’s dad? How heavy do you think it would be?”

“Heavy,” Jean said, reaching the front where Mikasa was arranging some of the bubblegums and Armin stood at the till. “It took Connie’s dad, Levi and two other men to get it into Levi’s truck. No idea how he was going to get it into his house. Why?”

Eren didn’t really want to talk about what he’d seen, mostly because he must’ve been hallucinating, so he just shook his head, muttered a “nevermind” and moved to restock the candy, crouching beside his sister. She also reached into the box to help him.

“You know I have work tomorrow, right?” Armin asked, sitting on the seat set up behind the till and twisting from side to side slightly. “What was so important that you needed us all here, Jean?”

“It’s about that new guy, Levi Ackerman!”

Eren’s eyes shifted to his sister at the name, but she just continued stocking the candy so he looked away before she noticed him staring.

“Shocker,” Eren forced out. “You’re seriously obsessed, you know that, right?”

“Can you blame me?! Look, weird shit’s been going on since he got here, all right!”

“Like what?” Armin asked.

“Like—I don’t know! Things! Shut up and let me talk!”

“Don’t be rude, Jean,” Mikasa snapped, which had Jean stumbling over his words for a good two minutes while he apologized profusely for being a jerk. Eren just rolled his eyes and shook the box, trying to find the Mars bars so he could restock them.

“Anyway!” Jean said extra loudly, clapping his hands together. “I’ve been doing some digging. Some research, if you will, on our resident writer.”

Eren would’ve been more surprised by that if research wasn’t Jean’s thing. He got bored easily and had once done an entire project for school on why fries made people so happy, complete with actual real live studies and a list of all the chemicals it released in people’s bodies. He followed that project up with how quickly people who ate too many fries were going to die.

“First off, I read two of his books and, let me tell you, they’re really awesome but gruesome as fuck.”

“Gruesome how?” Eren asked, finding the book topic much more interesting than the writer topic. Not that he wasn’t interested, because he was. He really was. He just didn’t want to be.

“I don’t know, like... he writes weird shit. He wrote a really twisted detective story where the guy ends up in some cannibal’s lair and gets eaten alive so his partner has to find him and kills everyone before killing himself.”

“Wha—” Eren had stopped stocking. Mikasa, too. “That’s...”

“Twisted, right?! But it was so good! Like, it was really emotional, and the one detective was actually in love with the one who got killed, so he turned into this crazy man and murdered all of them before blowing his brains out over his beloved’s corpse! It was really touching.”

Eren kept staring at Jean, a little horrified. His fears of Levi kidnapping people was suddenly rising exponentially.

“That’s really... wow.” Armin said, obviously wanting to say something more but being too polite to, even behind Levi’s back. “To each their own, I suppose.”

“Well, to be fair, that was one of Pixis’ least favourites.” He turned to Eren. “I borrowed the books from Pixis. He says it was Levi’s first or second one so it wasn’t super great. He’s more popular for his Supernatural series. The second book I read was a lot better, it was about this FBI agent who was half-Vampire and used his abilities to catch other Supernatural beings posing as humans. I’m done the first book and a few chapters into the second and it’s really good so far! The lead’s in love with this one guy across the street but he’s scared of getting too close to him because he has a lot of enemies, so he just kind of spies on him with his Vampire powers and shit. Wrote a really uncomfortably hot scene of the Vampire watching the guy jerking off in the bath. Actually got a little turned on, not gonna lie.”

“Sounds like he writes a lot of guy-love in his books,” Armin said. “Personal preference, or just trying to be inclusive?”

Jean shrugged. “Beats me, internet wasn’t really open on his sexuality, but I know he was engaged a few years ago. Which leads me to why I’m here!” He clapped his hands together. “Levi Ackerman! So, I was curious about why he moved here, especially considering that conversation Mikasa had with his friends at Hannes’. I did a little digging online and I think I know why he moved here!”

Eren didn’t want to be interested, but he was. His hands had stilled in their stocking again and he was watching Jean with more attention than he’d ever offered the other before.

Jean evidently enjoyed the attention because he grinned and began making wild hand gestures as he spoke. “Apparently he’s got super bad luck or something. All these bad things always happen around him so he probably moved here so that he could get away from people. We’re a small town, it’s easy to be a hermit here, and it sounds like that’s what he’s going for.”

“Bad luck in what sense?” Eren asked, finishing up with one last candy bar and feeling like the front was stocked enough. He picked up the excess from Mikasa’s side and hauled the box up, heading for the back to return it to its place.

“Okay, well get this!” Jean said, speaking loudly so Eren could still hear him. As long as he stayed on the other side of the store and didn’t try and scare Eren off the damn stool again. He climbed onto it to put the box away while Jean continued speaking loudly. “Apparently when he first started getting big, you know back when he was eighteen or whatever and was writing a lot, he started getting really popular and stuff.”

“That tends to be what ‘getting big’ means,” Mikasa said, sounding slightly irritated.

“Whatever. Anyway! So he was getting really big, and he and his best friend apparently went out camping or something and his best friend got mauled to death by some kind of animal!”

Jean sounded so excited about it, but Eren had frozen half-way off the stool, turning towards the front of the store, horrified. He didn’t understand why his friend thought this was exciting news. If Eren had gone out camping with Jean and his friend had gotten mauled to death...

“Jesus Christ,” Eren insisted, climbing the rest of the way off the stool. He started for the door when it creaked ominously. Letting out a shout, he grabbed for it and let out a sigh when it slammed shut. Bracing his hands against it, he waited, knowing one of the others would’ve heard. The door had been set up wrong, with a weird auto-lock from the outside that engaged whenever it latched, so he couldn’t open it from the inside.

He only had to wait a few seconds before it opened, nodding a thanks to Mikasa. She looked as horrified as Eren felt about what Jean had just told them, and when they reached the front once more, Eren saw that Armin looked pale.

“Why do you look so thrilled by this?” Mikasa demanded, resuming their conversation as if Eren being locked in the storage room had never happened.

Wasn’t like it was the first time. Eren had lost count, at this point.

“What? I’m not! It’s just insane! His best friend got mauled, and like, look at him!” Jean motioned out of the store, as if towards Levi. “He was _fine_! Nothing ever happened to him, yet his best friend totally got torn to shreds! Isn’t that crazy?!”

“Yeah, we don’t need details,” Mikasa cut in quickly, eyes on Armin, who had graduated from white to green.

“That really sucks,” Eren said, moving behind the counter and jumping up onto the back one so he could sit, considering Armin was in his seat. “But that was one event from years ago, hardly something to latch on to.”

“Oh no. No, no.” Jean let out a smarmy little chuckle, leaning against the counter and smirking. “Oh my guy, it gets better. A few years after that tragic event, he had a fiancé. Cute little thing, I saw pictures of her. Anyway, they were engaged for a while and about to get married and a few months before the wedding she died under ‘mysterious circumstances’,” Jean lifted both hands to put air quotes around the last two words, “and nobody would release how she died, just that she was fine one day, and dead the next.”

“Well that’s horrendously awful, and I’m starting to think you’re a sadist with how excited you’re getting about all this,” Mikasa said dryly.

“I’m not getting excited! It’s just _weird_ , okay! I feel like I’ve uncovered something malicious and nobody has ever connected the dots!”

“Because his best friend and fiancé died?” Eren asked with a shrug. “So he has bad luck, like you said. Doesn’t mean anything malicious is happening.”

“My guy. Buddy old pal. My friend.” Jean leaned across the counter, eyes shining and grin on his face. “I’m not done. See, I did some more digging on why he moved here, like I said, and get this: a month before he showed up in our fun little town, his roommate disappeared. _Also_  under ‘mysterious circumstances’.” The air quotes were back for the last two words. “No one knows where the roommate went, no one knows what happened to them, they just suddenly disappeared.” He leaned closer, lowering his voice so that the other three had to move closer to hear him. “I think we may have stumbled onto a serial killer here. He probably chopped up his roommate and stuffed the pieces under his floorboards.”

“Jean!” Armin insisted, looking ready to be sick.

“Are you a sociopath, or just reading too many gory books?” Mikasa snapped, smacking him hard across the back of the head. Jean winced. “What the hell is wrong with you?! Don’t go making up stupid accusations like that!”

“What?! Eren’s the one who said the cage he commissioned was for his kidnapped victims! I didn’t believe him until now!”

“I wasn’t serious,” Eren insisted. “Besides, did it occur to you that he’s a thriller writer and all this stuff you found is just publicity? Because this is all stuff that was available on the internet and I mean, the internet’s not exactly the be all, end all. Maybe it was all just a giant publicity stunt to help him sell books by making it seem like all these weird, mysterious things have happened around him. You said his books were all weird and mysterious, so it’d fit, right? And maybe he wanted to move out here because he wanted to be left alone. Maybe that fiancé of his left him for someone taller.”

Mikasa _almost_  managed to hold back her laugh, but not quite.

“You were the one insisting he was kidnapping people,” Jean insisted, crossing his arms and jutting out his chin. “You can’t blame me for being worried I’m going to end up drugged and unconscious for a few hours and wake up in a bathtub full of ice with my kidneys missing.”

“No one wants your kidneys, Jean,” Eren said with an exasperated sigh.

The offended look he received in response was not what he expected. “What do you _mean_  no one wants my kidneys? Why? What’s wrong with them? Not good enough for serial killers, is that what you’re saying?”

“I—what?” Eren asked, confused. “Do you _want_  people to want your kidneys?”

“Of course not, then I’d die!”

Eren opened his mouth, then decided there was no winning a stupidity war against Jean. He would just beat him down with experience so he said nothing.

“Anyway,” Jean continued, seeming satisfied with his victory, “you guys can all believe what you want, but _I_ think he’s a serial killer and when the bodies start dropping, we’re all going to know who to blame and who was right.”

“Jean, that is completely—”

Mikasa cut herself off when the door opened, the loud ding seeming to echo through the silence. Eren felt every hair on his body rise on end when he turned and saw Levi walking in, stopping just beyond the threshold of the door and staring at the four of them.

Nobody moved, but Eren knew his friends were aware of who was at the door. One look at his face made it obvious that it was Levi. He’d made the mistake of looking him in the eye, too. That suffocating terror returned, and the longer he kept eye contact, the worse it felt. He was ready to go insane with fear when Levi finally turned away and walked further into the store.

For a few seconds, nobody moved, as if the other three—none of whom had turned to look at the door—were making sure Levi was really, truly gone from the entrance.

“Well, I’m out of here,” Jean said quickly as the footsteps headed away from the front. “Mikasa, Armin, let’s go.”

“Wha—wait!” He grabbed Jean’s sleeve when he started to leave, his sister and other friend hastening to follow suit. Armin was probably terrified. Mikasa was likely just embarrassed. “You can’t leave me here alone with him!”

“Why? I thought he wasn’t a serial killer.” Jean pulled free and offered him a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry, Eren. I’ll avenge you.”

Eren’s mouth opened, trying to find words, but Jean was gone before he could get any of them out and the store was silent once the front door shut again. The brunet stood frozen on the other side of the counter, eyes scanning the store, trying to locate Levi. Stupid plan, considering the other was so short he wouldn’t see him over the shelves.

Clenching his hands into fists, he moved out from behind the counter and slowly began walking along the aisles, trying to catch sight of Levi. Every footfall sounded like a gunshot in his head, and his left shoe squeaked every other step. His throat felt dry and fear was slowly rising in his chest.

Jesus Christ, how was he supposed to spend an entire _day_  with him when he could barely stand a few _seconds_  with him?! Then again, it was currently night, and he was alone with very few people coming through. If Levi wanted to kill him, he could probably do it and get away with it long before anyone fou—

“Where’s the bleach?”

Eren was fairly certain his heart had taken up residence in his throat and he forced it back to its usual place in his chest before whipping around. He hadn’t even heard Levi approach him. How was it Eren sounded like a fucking stampede of animals walking through the store but Levi could sneak up on him?

“What?”

“Bleach,” Levi said, drawing out the word, as if he thought Eren were slow.

“Bleach? Wha-what do you need bleach for?”

He wasn’t looking Levi in the eye, but he could tell the other was staring at him exceptionally hard. “The body.”

All the blood drained from Eren’s face. “Body?”

“Yes. I need bleach to dissolve the body in my basement.”

Eren was going to die. He was about to become this crazy serial killer’s next victim. Jean was right, and they would be searching the forests for days trying to find him, and when they did, he would just be a pile of bones and—

“It’s for my laundry, dumbass.”

The little hamster running circles in Eren’s brain screeched to a halt. “Laundry?”

“Yeah.” Levi raked a hand through his hair, hard gaze on Eren. “Serial killers need clean clothes, too.”

Eren let out a small laugh, not sure how to react to that. Evidently Levi had heard Jean’s theory, which meant he was either being creepy on purpose, or figured he had nothing to hide.

“Oi, are you deaf or stupid?”

Snapping out of his horrified thoughts, Eren quickly turned and hurried to the other end of the store where the bleach was. Levi wanted bleach? He would get bleach. Eren would even give it to him for free and carry it out to his car! Anything to stay on his good side, no matter what! If Levi wanted to murder people, no problem, as long as Eren wasn’t one of them!

Reaching the bleach, he turned to wait for Levi since he hadn’t heard him following and jumped when he found the other right behind him.

“What the hell!” he fell back into the shelves, narrowly missing them falling over. “Do you not have feet or something?! Are you gliding?! Make some noise when you follow people!”

Levi just gave him a look before reaching out. Eren shrank back, wincing and wondering if he was about to get strangled. When Levi’s hand was inches from his neck, he clenched his eyes shut, waiting. Then he heard something scrape beside him and when he opened his eyes, he saw Levi pulling a bottle of bleach off the shelf by his head.

“Are you always this paranoid? Everyone in town is scared of me. Are all small towns like this? If I’d known that, I’d have moved to one years ago. People actually leave me alone, it’s nice.”

He turned and began heading for the front of the store, two other items Eren hadn’t noticed held in his other hand. The brunet gave himself a few seconds to calm down before following, walking behind the till while Levi looked through his wallet. Eren was a little annoyed to see a few hundred dollar bills in there. If Levi tried to pay with one, he wouldn’t be able to make change without going to the safe in the back.

He rang through the items and was thankful when Levi held out a twenty, taking it from him. Passing back the change, he got a bag out and put his items in it—none of them for body disposal that he could tell, unless there was something he didn’t know about Cheerios and spaghetti noodles. Handing over the bag, Levi took it and headed for the door, beginning to push it open before he paused.

“For the record, if I was a serial killer, moving to a small town would be pretty stupid of me. Tell your friend not to quit his day job.”

Pushing through the door, he disappeared out into the night. Eren stood frozen, waiting for the car engine to start and then drive away before collapsing against the counter, feeling like he’d been moments away from death.

_Death_! And it was _all_  Jean’s fault, as usual!

“Calm down. Just calm down,” Eren insisted, struggling to calm his racing heart and level out his breathing. Levi really was a terrifying person.

It wasn’t until twenty minutes after Levi had left, and Eren’s heart was finally beginning to slow, that something occurred to him. Jean had been commenting on Levi being a serial killer _before_  Levi had walked in.

There was no way he should’ve been able to hear him from outside the store.

* * *

“I will _pay_  you!”

_“Sorry dude, but I can’t today. I’ve got plans and I’m not rescheduling them because you’re a chickenshit.”_

“No, no, no, you don’t understand. He’s going to murder me. We’re going to be _alone_! Come on, you gotta help me out here!”

_“Sorry Eren, but I’m busy. My ride’s here. Gotta go.”_

“Wait no, Reiner! Rei—” Eren let out a growl and pulled his phone away from his ear, seeing his friend had hung up on him. There weren’t very many managers in his father’s store—and by that, he meant it was just him and Reiner, plus his mother and father when they were available, which wasn’t often anymore. Thomas was a back-up manager, meaning he had keys and access to the office, but he preferred not being the manager on duty unless there was no other choice.

Eren had known it was a long shot trying to get someone to cover for him, but he’d been hopeful. Anything to get out of five hours alone with Levi. He doubted the man would even listen to anything he said!

Eren would probably ask him to restock something and Levi would ask if he wanted to stay alive and Eren would fucking end up doing it to save his own ass! This was a catastrophe! Why had his father hired that weirdo _anyway_?!

Sighing and burying his face in his arms, he whined into his desk for a few seconds, knowing he was going to be late if he didn’t leave right away. Sighing, he stood and shoved his phone into his pocket, putting his socks on and then heading for the front door. He left it unlocked, as usual, and wandered down the drive so he could walk to the store.

His mother was at work, manning the store for the last few hours of the night shift so Eren could go home for some much-needed sleep. She tended to work the store off and on but was mostly a stay-at-home mother, something she complained about now because Mikasa and Eren were all grown up and rarely ever home.

His father was at the clinic with Mikasa, who usually worked the front desk a few days a week.

And Eren? Eren was heading to his death.

He wished Jean had just kept his stupid theories and knowledge to himself. Eren had been thinking about the cage ever since Jean had told him about it, and seeing it had only further reinforced his belief that Levi was a fucking serial killer who kidnapped his victims. Then the conversation from the previous day had Eren on Google all night after Levi’s departure looking up information on all the people in his life who had been killed.

Maybe Levi had a pet lion or something? That would also explain the one friend with the claw marks across their face. Then again, the friend had said they were a scientist so those scars could have been completely unrelated to Levi.

Dragging his feet while wandering ever so slowly down the street, he took his time making his way to the store, which was unfair given his mother was likely waiting to leave. On top of that, he didn’t know _why_  he was procrastinating considering Levi wouldn’t be starting for two more hours.

Crossing the street at the end of the block, he shuffled his feet on his way to the door and pushed it open.

“Hi mom,” he muttered, letting the door close behind him while he wandered towards the till. “How was—”

He was here. He was already fucking here. _Why_  was he already here?!

Where he’d expected to see his mother, behind the till reading a book, he instead saw Levi seated on the chair supplied with his laptop open and fingers flying. He had a takeaway cup on the counter beside his left hand, and the sharpie markings on the side clearly denoted some kind of tea. It looked like it had come from Hannes’.

Eren just stood frozen where he’d stopped, staring incredulously. What, was he a fucking suck-up or something?!

“Hi honey!” He received a kiss to the temple, which startled him so badly he almost tripped over his own feet and fell into the door. Luckily the shelf by the entrance stopped him from falling, though he did almost knock the unit over.

“Why is he here?!” Eren demanded in a low voice, trying to be subtle when he pointed to the till.

“Who, Levi?” she asked, surprised. “He was scheduled for today, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah, in like, two hours!”

“Oh.” She seemed surprised, but she was still smiling. “He’s very kind. He came by around seven to pick something up for breakfast and saw me struggling to stay awake. He offered to begin his shift early so I showed him the ropes and went to finish up some paperwork in the back so I could go home as soon as you arrived.”

Great. Now the creepy man was wooing his mother. Terrific.

And picking up breakfast? What the fuck had he bought Cheerios for the previous night then?! Dinner?!

“How are you not terrified?” Eren hissed, casting a glance at Levi. He saw the older man’s fingers pause on the keys before he smirked and began typing again. He was probably writing about how he was going to most easily destroy all evidence of his murder of Eren.

“Don’t be rude,” Carla insisted, flicking her son in the ear, the tattoo she had on her inner wrist clearly visible. “He can’t help being intimidating. Once you get to know him, I’m sure he won’t make you so nervous.” As if forgetting she had injured him mere seconds before, she pulled his face closer to kiss his temple once more. “Have fun! I’ll see you at dinner.”

A sound Eren couldn’t identify escaped him when his mother walked out of the store, Eren’s left hand raised as if to grab the back of her shirt and beg her to take him with her. As it stood, he just watched her get into her car and drive away.

“Do you always keep your mother waiting?”

Stiffening, Eren turned slowly to regard Levi, who was still typing away on his laptop as if he hadn’t said a word. That was really annoying. Why was he acting like he was better than Eren? He had just moved there, he probably didn’t even know _how_  to work the stupid till!

Struggling not to stomp, Eren headed for the office so he could change into his work attire. He slammed the door behind himself, tossed his bag aside, and braced his hands against the back of the chair, trying to calm himself down. He didn’t know why Levi made him feel so uneasy, aside from the whole terror whenever he looked him in the eye thing. And the theories of him being a serial killer. And the cage.

Not to mention their conversation the night before hadn’t exactly been comforting. Who came out to buy bleach at close to midnight? Levi, apparently. And did he not sleep or something?! He’d been out late, and had shown up early.

A stab of fear raced through Eren at the realization that Levi had been alone with his mother during many hours of the morning. What if something had happened? What if Levi had hurt his mother? No one would’ve known! Of course, irrelevant at this point considering his mother was perfectly fine, but what about next time?!

“Calm down. Just calm down.” He struggled to breathe normally, then cleared his throat and pushed away from the chair, grabbing his bag so he could change his shirt. Jean usually mocked him for not just walking to work in his work attire, but he preferred changing _at_  work in case he went out afterwards. That way he was always guaranteed a change of clothes.

Exiting the office, he heard chatter at the front and inched around one of the aisles so he could see. Levi was speaking to Pixis, who seemed to be trying to peek over the counter to get a look at what Levi was writing. They seemed to be having fun.

Levi didn’t seem so scary right then. Actually, when he wasn’t scowling and looking like he wanted to murder someone, he was borderline attractive. He had really high cheekbones, piercing blue eyes, and really smooth-looking skin. Eren could see himself being attracted to him if his attitude weren’t so shitty.

He stayed hidden for a few seconds longer, watching the exchange until Pixis gave up and bought his items, then left with a wave and a call that he would be more than happy to look over his book any time. Levi actually smiled at those words, waiting for the door to shut before beginning to type once more.

Eren watched him a while longer, then stiffened when he spoke.

“Can I help you? Or are you content with standing there staring at me?”

“I wasn’t staring,” Eren insisted, coming out from behind the shelf. “I was just making sure you were treating the customers right.”

Levi didn’t comment on that and just continued to type, eyes on the screen of his laptop. Eren crossed his arms, shifting his weight uncomfortably while looking around. He didn’t know what to do. If this were Thomas, he’d be back behind the counter with him on Tumblr while the two of them talked about various things. Or he’d be texting with Annie about _Voltron_. She was adamant that Keith and Lance were a thing. Eren felt more inclined to believe she was insane.

Eren’s gaze shifted back to Levi, allowing the other’s lack of attention to give him some free reign to stare. There weren’t ever any newcomers in town, so to Eren, Levi was like a breath of fresh air.

A deadly kind of fresh air, but air all the same. He didn’t want to admit to himself that he found Levi marginally attractive or else people would think he had a thing for serial killers.

“So what are you writing? Cannibals eating store owners?” Eren blurted out before he could stop himself. He regretted it the second Levi’s fingers froze and his eyes rose. Eren hastily looked away, not needing to wet his pants so early into his shift. He suddenly felt dread clawing its way up from his stomach at the idea that maybe _Levi_  was a cannibal and Eren’s comment would be construed as knowing his secret. If Eren knew his secret, he was likely going to be next on his dinner menu.

There was a very long, very tense silence that Eren wanted to walk away from, but he worried about turning his back, so he waited it out until Levi finally spoke.

“I didn’t know snot-nosed brats were allowed to read adult-oriented material.”

“I didn’t read your stupid book, Jean did,” Eren snapped back, accidentally turning back to him so he could glare. That had been a mistake, because their eyes met and he felt the fear slowly clawing its way up his throat. But more than that, today there was something else. Something... darker. Levi was looking at him almost as if he wanted to eat him. Or fuck him. It was hard to tell with him.

“I’ve got inventory to count!” Eren all but shouted, ripping his gaze away and turning to head for the storage room. He walked right into one of the shelves, almost knocking it over before managing to right it and hurrying away from the front.

He flung himself into the storage room and shut the door as far as he could without latching it. Getting the doorstop into place to ensure the door didn’t shut, he straightened and waited a second to make sure it had taken. Then, he leaned back against one of the shelving units inside the small space, closing his eyes and rubbing his face. He could feel the back of his shirt sticking to his skin, and his heart was pounding a mile a minute. Levi did weird things to his body, not all of them unpleasant. Just most of them.

He really didn’t understand him, or why he was so terrifying. He really hoped his mother was right and that the feelings went away, because they were irritating. He didn’t _want_  to be scared of Levi, but he was.

And Jean’s theories, again, were not helping.

“Focus. Focus!” He shook his head, let out a small breath, then turned to grab the clipboard from the closest rack so he could do a mini inventory. Since there were two of them in the store, it made it easier for him to stay in the back most of the day, which is what he did.

He didn’t like the storage room, though. As with the previous night, he’d gotten locked in more than once, and kept bugging his father to get someone out to fix it. Grisha was always so busy that he kept forgetting so Eren was always forced to live with the fear that he was going to get locked in again. It wasn’t a huge deal when it happened, someone usually found him within a few hours, but it was worse when it happened to Thomas, who was claustrophobic and tended to have a panic attack.

Apparently it used to be some kind of safe room, from what Eren’s father had told him. It was made entirely of metal and could withstand a small explosion. Comforting for Eren to know in case someone ever thought to drop bombs over their city, which he doubted because they were in the middle of fucking nowhere.

On top of that: he still didn’t like that it locked from the outside. Stupid design flaw. What kind of safe room locked from the outside?! Obviously it had been set up incorrectly, and he knew that, but he didn’t understand why nobody had ever bothered to fix it.

“Should just call Connie’s dad myself,” Eren muttered to himself while climbing a small step stool so he could see the upper shelves. “Get the door fixed. Stop from being locked in again.”

“I’m going home.”

Eren let out a rather embarrassing scream and had to grab hold of the shelf he was in front of to stop from toppling backwards. He turned to the door, seeing it more ajar than it had been previously with Levi standing in the doorway, staring up at him.

“Stop _doing_  that! Shuffle your feet or cough or something! Are you trying to kill me?!”

When Levi didn’t respond, Eren realized that had been the wrong thing to ask and he cleared his throat, looking back at the detergent on the top shelf, counting the containers.

“Your shift doesn’t end for another hour,” he muttered. Realistically, he would’ve been fine with Levi leaving early, but he wasn’t done with his counting so he’d prefer if he stuck around for at least a few more minutes.

“I got here at seven.”

“And that’s your fault, isn’t it?” Eren asked, avoiding looking at him while writing a number down.

A chill raced up his spine and he froze, then slowly turned to look over his shoulder. He couldn’t see Levi’s eyes behind his fringe, but the aura he had felt menacing and dangerous. Eren suddenly wished he’d exited the tiny little room before arguing with Levi, because now if he was murdered, Levi could just walk away after shutting the door and it would take hours for people to find Eren...

“The sun is setting,” Levi snapped, Eren’s grip on what he held tightening. He could definitely find a way to use the clipboard and pen as weapons if need be, he was sure.

“So?” he asked.

“I like my freedom after dark.”

“So you can come buy bleach from the local store in the middle of the night?”

“I had laundry to do,” he snapped again, lifting his gaze. Eren looked at his left ear, like he had the last time.

“You realize your original shift was going to end after sundown too, right? What’s the big deal?”

His brain was screaming at him to stop angering the serial killer, but his mouth kept speaking without his consent. He was actually really worried Levi was about to kick the stool out from under him but instead he just grunted that he was leaving and disappeared from the room.

Eren let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and leaned heavily against the shelf. Setting the clipboard down, he rubbed at his face with both hands and struggled to calm himself down. If Levi wanted to leave, fine. No big deal. Eren didn’t want him around anyway. And he would hear anyone enter if he had to head to the front, so he had time to finish.

Struggling to stop being a baby, he cleared his throat and continued with his counting, feeling more at ease now that he knew Levi was gone. And good riddance! Hopefully he would just quit and stay up at home far, _far_  away from Eren. _So_  far.

There was an ominous creaking sound and he turned and let out a shout, leaping off the step-stool and wedging one hand between the door and the jamb moments before it latched, letting out a small sigh of relief. The last time he’d gotten locked in the storage room while alone in the store, he’d had to wait close to four hours before someone had let him out. He didn’t like thinking about how many teenagers had come in to steal stuff seeing the store empty.

Letting out a breath, he bent down and wedged the doorstop more securely against the bottom, then returned to his step-stool, continuing with what he’d been doing.

He heard the front door open moments later and turned to glance over his shoulder, tossing the clipboard down and stepping off the stool. He’d barely gotten the door open when the customer appeared in front of him, making him jump.

“Why so on edge, Jaeger?”

“What? I’m not on edge. You’re on edge!” he snapped, shoving past and moving towards the frozen food. He had no reason to head in that direction, he just needed to move around and get rid of some energy.

“Wow, you learn that comeback from a toddler?” Annie asked, following behind him with her hands stuffed in the pockets of her low-cut jeans. She was looking around as if she’d never been in the store before, despite having practically grown up there since she’d always been close with Eren.

“I’m just—it’s nothing. Just the new guy. He’s creepy,” Eren muttered.

“You mean the guy at the front?”

Eren missed a step and whipped around, grabbing the blonde by the shoulders and giving her a shake. “Wait, he’s still _here_?!” he hissed quietly, eyes wide.

“Yeah,” she pushed him away, one hand shoving hard against his face and forcing him back a step. “Sitting at the front, like he’s supposed to be. Why?”

Shushing her by almost hitting her in the face, Eren made his way down the aisle and peeked around the corner, catching sight of Levi sitting behind the till, arms crossed and looking bored. His computer was packed away, presumably because he’d been about to leave, so now he was just sitting there.

“It’s rude to stare.”

Eren tensed when he spoke. How did he _do_  that?! He wasn’t even looking in Eren’s direction, how could he possibly know he was even there?

“I thought you were leaving,” he said, moving out from behind the shelf and crossing his arms almost defensively.

Levi turned to him then, eyes passing over him and focussing on a spot behind Eren. He could only assume Annie had followed him out.

“I changed my mind. I don’t need you causing problems between me and your father by saying I left early.”

Eren didn’t really have a comeback for that, since it was true and he likely would’ve bitched about it, so he just turned back to Annie and motioned the back of the store. She followed him to the back and he scowled, annoyed. She didn’t change her facial expression in the slightest, which was fairly normal for her.

“So who is he?”

“Some new guy in town. A writer or something.” Eren waved the words away, finding them unimportant. “I’m guessing you’re not here to check out the weirdo so what’s up?”

“Just came by to make plans before your sister steals you. Two weekends from now, there’s gonna be a big party near my place on Saturday. You in?”

Eren grinned. “I’m totally in. But you know, you could’ve just texted me.”

“And miss seeing that ridiculous look on your face? Not a chance.” She slapped his cheek lightly, something she had been doing since they were little. Eren scowled and rubbed at his cheek, following behind her while she headed for the door. “I’ll text you the details closer to the date, okay? Don’t let your sister steal you.”

“I promise.”

They’d reached the front and she flicked his forehead before nodding farewell. She turned to stare at Levi on her way out and when Eren glanced over at him, he saw the writer staring right back, arms still crossed. The look on his face was menacing enough to have Eren shit his pants, so he was thankful it wasn’t directed at him.

He _did_  have to give Annie a little shove though to help her break eye contact, since she’d frozen like everybody else. Once he got her moving, she tore her gaze away and headed out of the store.

Levi’s gaze remained locked on Annie until she got into her car and drove away. Then he turned back to Eren and made him all uncomfortable again.

“You don’t like me very much, do you?” Eren muttered.

“I don’t like anybody very much. Hurry up with your inventory, I want to leave before it gets dark.”

“Whatever.”

Eren really didn’t get this guy. At fucking all. In fact, he didn’t get him so much that he didn’t realize even as he walked back to the storage room that he’d been staring right at him and hadn’t felt the need to wet his pants.

* * *

Levi’s fingers flew across the keyboard, words appearing on the screen as quickly as his brain thought them, eyes following along as each word was created. He finished his sentence, halfway through the next one when a loud, shrill sound interrupted his train of thought and effectively killed what he had been in the middle of typing.

_This_  was why he didn’t give out his number, and he felt ready to murder someone before forcing himself to calm down. Reaching over for his cell phone, his scowl deepened at the name he found blinking back at him and he answered.

“I told you, old man, I’m not leaving.”

_“I was just calling to check up on you. Make sure you were all moved in and comfortable,”_  Erwin said calmly, not commenting on the “old man” bit.

“I’m fine,” was the snapped reply. “You made me lose my train of thought.”

_“If you were still in Trost, I wouldn’t have to call you to make sure you were still alive.”_

Levi was getting more annoyed with this conversation as it went on. He would’ve hung up on him if that didn’t risk Erwin driving out there to drag him back home. Except Levi _was_  home now. He was home, and he was staying there, no matter what Erwin said.

_“Levi,”_  Erwin said, using his big-man voice, _“I understand—”_

“Don’t bring this up now,” Levi snapped. “I’m not in the mood.”

_“You haven’t spoken about it since it happened.”_

“And we’re not _going_  to speak about it. It’s over. It happened. Eld died, and whether it was by my hand or not is irrelevant. It was my _fault_  he was targeted and I’m not having this discussion with you anymore.”

Levi clenched his hand tightly around the phone, closing his eyes and struggling to dispel the images attempting to push themselves to the forefront of his mind. This was part of the reason he’d wanted to get away. He didn’t want the constant reminders of what had happened.

It wasn’t the only reason he was in Shiganshina, but he hadn’t spoken to Erwin about that. It wasn’t the right time, so he was going to wait until he could have a conversation with him that didn’t involve him swearing angrily and hanging up on him, like he was tempted to do now.

Though having him on the phone _did_  have one advantage about something he wanted to ask. He opened his mouth to do so, then hesitated, wondering if that was a good idea. Mentioning something like that right now would probably worry Erwin. He’d insist Levi shouldn’t be left out here alone and would insist on coming to spend time with him, which he _definitely_ didn’t want.

But he couldn’t deny the feelings that had raced through him that day and what they had done to his body. The way things had begun to shift and how uncomfortable it had made him.

It wasn’t normal, and he knew it wasn’t normal. Bringing it up would mean admitting something was wrong and different. It would give Erwin an excuse to come out and check up on him when all Levi wanted was to be left alone.

So he shut his mouth and said nothing, waiting for Erwin to give up on trying to speak to him and hang up. It took a few more minutes, but eventually the blond man sighed heavily, wished him a good night, and hung up. Levi did the same, tossing his phone aside and returning his attention to the screen in front of him.

Unable to pick his train of thought back up, he just backspaced to the last period and closed the document, instead opening another that contained the next part of his FBI Vampire series. He scrolled to the bottom and remembered why he had stopped writing it to work on something else. He’d been working on a sex scene.

It was all very vanilla for his tastes, considering what was happening. He figured he should spice things up a little bit, but he found it hard to make that believable. No one would want the agent to be turned on by anyone but his neighbour, that was the whole point of the one-sided relationship. Having everyone writing on the forums about how perfect they were together despite the fact that the agent would probably lose control during sex and suck his neighbour dry.

It was hard staying in control on a normal day during sex, but adding in someone the agent _wanted_  to have sex with was just a recipe for disaster. The perfect Romeo and Juliet story, not that the Juliet of this story was helpless and the Romeo was far from stupid.

Levi felt like he really needed to get laid if he was getting bored with the way this scene was panning out.

Reaching up to scratch at his cheek, Levi paused when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye and he pulled his wrist back. He frowned at the weird smudge on his inner wrist, rubbing at it with his other hand. When it didn’t come off, he set his laptop aside and stood from the bed, wandering into his bathroom and pumping some soap out of the dispenser. He rubbed hard at the smudge on his wrist, then rinsed it off under the tap, but when he dried his hands and checked again, the smudge was still there. It was faint, but present.

“What the fuck?” he muttered to himself, rubbing his thumb against it. It didn’t hurt, but he supposed it could be a bruise. Shrugging it off, feeling better that it wasn’t dirt, he returned to his bed and hauled the laptop back into his lap so he could keep typing.

He ignored the darkening smudge on his wrist. 


	4. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Voltron (c) DreamWorks Animation  
> Stranger Things (c) Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Justin Doble  
> Scream (c) Netflix

The room was brightly lit when he pushed open his door, shirt in one hand and head bowed. Realistically, it was a miracle he was still conscious at all, and he hoped he made it the eight steps to his bed before he collapsed.

Shuffling forward a step, he dropped the shirt, the dark material landing on the carpeted floor, and then stumbled a few more steps to fall onto his bed. It felt so amazing to be lying down, and he wanted to stay there forever.

To say his week had been challenging would be an understatement. Not only had he been stuck with Levi for all of his daytime shifts, but he’d also been working back to back night and day shifts. His father really needed to find a replacement for himself if he was going to be working more hours at the clinic because Eren couldn’t keep this up and still be a normal human being. His mother didn’t work at the store often, and Reiner seemed to be making more and more excuses _not_  to work at the store, not that his father trusted Reiner to work any of the night shifts alone _anyway_. So really, at this point, Eren was running the place and he already didn’t like working there. He didn’t need to be in charge of it.

He forced his brain to stop thinking about the fact that he’d be going back again that evening, focussing instead of sleeping right at this moment. He was so looking forward to it, and had just begun to give into unconsciousness when there was a knock at his bedroom door.

_Nope,_  he thought to himself, curling more into a ball and hugging his pillow beneath his face. _Nope. Whoever it is, and whatever they want, my answer is no. If it’s an emergency, they can fucking wait for at least five hours._

He’d almost drifted off when the knock came again.

“Eren?”

That was a voice he hadn’t been expecting, but he still didn’t respond. Whatever Armin needed to tell him could be discussed in a few hours. It didn’t have to be right this second. He could wait. Whatever it was, it could always, _always_  wait.

“Eren, I know you just got home, but can we talk?”

He let out a wordless grunt he hoped Armin interpreted as a “no.” He didn’t mean to brush his friend off, and honestly, if it was massively urgent he was sure he’d suck it up and call him in, but right now? No. Right now, it didn’t sound urgent, and Eren was sleeping, so Armin could come back later.

It was silent for a while longer and Eren assumed Armin had left, but then he heard a soft voice speak and his eyes opened.

“It’s about Mikasa.”

It took his brain exactly point-two of a second to debate whether or not to sit up, and with an internal wail of despair, he forced his arms to move into a position more conducive to pushing himself up.

“What is it?” he asked, voice sounding just as tired as he felt. He turned to look at his door, seeing it inch open. Armin entered, his expression showing how sorry he was for bothering him, but he didn’t leave so he obviously thought it was important. Given Mikasa and Eren tended to be together a lot and, when they weren’t, she was with Armin, it made sense that his friend would seek him out now while his sister was at work.

Armin shut the door behind himself and then moved to Eren’s desk, sitting down in his chair and folding his hands together in his lap.

Eren himself just sat with his legs splayed on his bed, hair a tousled mess and half-dressed.

“I’m really sorry, Eren. I wouldn’t have come now, but Mikasa isn’t home and I really needed to talk to you.”

“It’s fine,” he said, rubbing at his face with both hands and hoping he stayed conscious enough to actually _have_  this conversation. “What’s up?”

Armin’s hands began to twist, and Eren frowned. His friend had always had the bad habit of procrastinating bad news, and it was always obvious when it was _really_  bad because he would twist his hands and pick at his cuticles so much it affected his fingers.

He hadn’t started on the cuticles yet, but Armin’s hands were turning white with how hard he was twisting them around each other.

“Armin,” he said, forcing his friend’s gaze up. “What is it?”

“It’s Mikasa,” he said, obviously still stalling since he’d already told Eren that. “She’s… Well, the thing is, do you remember that one night we went to see you? When Jean was spouting out all those weird theories about the new guy?”

“When he thought Levi might be a serial killer and promptly left when said serial killer showed up?” Eren yawned, shifting a bit on the bed so one leg came up, bent at the knee. He gripped the ankle with both hands, giving Armin a look. “Yeah, I seem to remember that night pretty well.”

“Okay, well,” Armin looked down, playing with his cuticles now, “that night we didn’t really, you know, _see_  Levi. It was more he walked in, everyone froze, and then we left, so Mikasa didn’t really get a good look at him.”

Those words made Eren straighten, and he felt like he knew where Armin was going with this. He didn’t interrupt though, he just waited for his friend to get the rest out.

“We went to the store the other day while you were working. You were in the back, but Mikasa was picking something up for your dad so we just went in. Levi was at the till and the second she saw him, she kind of… froze.”

Eren listened while his friend spoke, imagining his sister’s reaction. Once the fear had worn off, as Eren had said to his father, Levi and Mikasa looked incredibly similar. Not enough that people would immediately mistake them for siblings, but still similar enough for people to wonder if they were related.

And then there was the name. It wasn’t that Ackerman was an uncommon name, it was just that no one else in their town had that name, and having a newcomer show up who looked like Mikasa and shared her last name…

“Honestly, I brought it up with my dad,” Eren admitted, having moved his other leg so he had them both crossed on the bed, gripping his ankles with both hands. “I know it’s not like no one in the world has that last name, but it’s just…”

“Weird,” Armin finished when Eren trailed off.

“Yeah. Weird.” The way he said it made it clear Armin’s thoughts were similar to Eren’s. Most people noticed the similarities between Mikasa Ackerman and Levi Ackerman. Not just the name, but the bone structure, facial expressions, hair and eye colour. They weren’t identical, but there were enough similarities to make everyone do a double-take.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, both contemplating what they had just been discussing. It was Armin who broke the silence first.

“I wanted to tell you because, well, I’m a little worried. She’s becoming a bit obsessive.”

“Obsessive like Sasha obsessive, or Jean obsessive?” Eren asked.

“Jean obsessive.” That was a concern. “When we left that day, she kept asking me questions about him. His age, where he’s from, what we know about him. I didn’t really know what to say, I could tell she was kind of turning the idea over in her head. I mean, her parents disappeared when she was still young, and it’s not _impossible_  that they had a son. Or, you know, that he’s her cousin or something.”

Eren shrugged, not wanting to think on it too much. He worried about how Mikasa would feel if she found out they’d been talking about this behind her back, but similarly, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried. Yes, he’d entertained the idea himself, but it was different having him look into this than it was her. He wouldn’t get hurt by what he might find.

“I’m just worried,” Armin said quietly. “I don’t want Mikasa to get her hopes up and have them get crushed. I also don’t want her to find out he’s related to her and see her parents differently.” He clenched his hands together tightly once more. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Thanks for telling me, Armin,” Eren said, rubbing at his face. “I’ll keep an eye on her, talk to her if I need to.”

He nodded, getting to his feet. “If it’s okay with you, I was thinking we could tell Jean. Research master and all. He and I could keep digging a little bit, see what we find.”

“Yeah, do that.” Eren rubbed his face again, his brain beginning to shut down. “I’ll see what I can find when I’m alone at work.”

“Thanks Eren.”

Eren found it weird Armin was thanking _him_  for looking out for his own sister, but he didn’t comment on it and just nodded again, falling onto his back and rolling over so he was lying on his side. “I need sleep now.”

“Of course. I’ll see you later, Eren.”

He let out a grunt and closed his eyes. He wasn’t even sure he’d stayed awake long enough for Armin to leave his room.

* * *

“It’d be hot, though,” Jean insisted, leaning forward on the counter, cheek in his hand while he used one finger to scroll through the page on his tablet. “I mean, I’d be okay having a threesome with them.”

“I didn’t tell you about this for you to make jokes about fucking my sister, asshole.”

Eren had known he and Armin had to confide in Jean. The three of them cared for Mikasa more than anyone else and he knew Jean would be on board with helping them. Of course, having the sibling factor in there had turned Jean into more of a hornball than he already was, and it was beginning to annoy Eren.

Was his sister attractive? Yes, of course she was. Eren had always thought so, but he was very much not interested in her. She was legitimately his sister, blood-related or not. And if Jean hadn’t been such a sleeze whenever he hit on her, he may even be okay with the two of them dating. But his friend always made inappropriate comments and on top of that, there was the animosity between him and Mikasa. Eren felt like he could understand why his sister didn’t like him, though at least she tolerated his presence whenever he was with Eren.

It was more than he could say about how she felt when it came to Annie.

Shaking the thought from his brain and ignoring the disgusting comments escaping Jean’s mouth, Eren continued to scroll through a page on his laptop, not even sure what he was looking for or how to find it. He’d mostly just been pulling up the old articles surrounding Mikasa’s parents’ disappearance. The case had never been solved, or if it had, no one had published its resolution. As he read the articles now, as an adult, he couldn’t help but feel a stab of pity for his sister.

They’d both been so young when it had happened, he felt like he hadn’t really understood it at the time. He remembered being excited because his closest friend was coming to stay with him and his family forever. His six year old brain hadn’t really been able to comprehend the horrible reasons behind why. He felt like it had taken him a long time to finally realize that Mikasa coming to live with him was actually an awful thing, because it meant her family was never coming back.

She never talked about it. Even now, she didn’t ever seem to be upset or angry about having missed out on growing up with her own parents. The Jaegers had always treated her as part of their family, and Eren himself had always ensured she felt welcome. They may not have been blood-relatives, but he loved her as much as if she _had_  been his real sister. Actually, he got along with her better than he probably would’ve his own if he’d had one.

“Do you think she remembers them?” he suddenly asked, Jean looking up at him with his eyes. “Her parents. She never really talks about them, and I mean, I get that it’d be painful to think about them but... do you think she remembers them?”

Jean straightened with a shrug, raking a hand through his hair before rubbing absently at his undercut. “Does she miss them, though? I don’t mean she’s heartless or anything, but can you actually miss something you don’t really remember? She was five when it happened. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t remember anything that happened back when I was five. She grew up with your parents, she calls them ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ and hasn’t ever acted like she’s adopted. The only way people really know is because she kept her last name.”

Eren remembered that conversation. It had been when Mikasa had turned thirteen, on the anniversary of her parents’ disappearance. A town this small always talked when big events like that happened, and that day had been particularly strenuous on everyone. At dinner, Eren had been asked to do the dishes. He’d argued and fought with his father about it because it wasn’t his turn, but eventually had been forced to obey. It wasn’t until he’d turned off the tap when he’d gotten water all over the floor by accident that he’d heard a snip-it of the conversation happening in the dining room. His parents had wanted to have a moment alone with Mikasa and, since she and Eren were always together aside from when they were doing chores, this was why he’d been asked to do the dishes.

They’d been speaking to her about whether or not she wanted to change her last name. They hadn’t done it during the adoption out of respect for Mikasa’s parents, and even now they didn’t want her to do it if she didn’t want to, but they also knew that once she got to high school, despite it being outside of town, everyone in the area knew about the Ackerman family’s mysterious disappearance. They wanted to give her the opportunity to make a decision before she went to high school the following year.

Eren didn’t know how long she’d thought about it, but she hadn’t answered at the dinner table. She’d told them she would consider it, and Carla had assured her that the choice was hers and they would support and love her regardless of her decision. In the end, she hadn’t taken them up on it because they were now almost eight years later and she was still Mikasa Ackerman.

He was kind of glad, really. He felt like she would have regretted changing her name.

Wincing slightly and rubbing the back of his neck, Eren felt all the hairs rise on end and turned to look out the window behind the till. The lot was empty, which made sense considering the hour, but he had the uncomfortable feeling that someone was watching him. Not like, innocent interest watching, more like malicious intent watching.

“You okay?”

Eren turned back to Jean, frowning. “Yeah. Why?”

Jean motioned his arm and Eren looked down. He had goosebumps. Eren hastily began rubbing at the arm, as if offended, but he saw his other one had them, too.

“You cold or something?”

“No, it’s fine.” He rolled his shoulders, still rubbing at one arm and tried to shake the feeling off. He was being stupid, being able to tell when someone was watching you was only a myth, and he knew it. Like sneezing when someone was talking about you. It was dumb, and he was probably just feeling nervous about Mikasa finding out what they were doing behind her back. Not to mention the articles on her parents were freaking him out. After all, if a grown man who hauled lumber and a grown woman who was experienced in self-defence could go missing, Eren wasn’t too keen on his own odds.

He slapped the laptop shut, making Jean jump and then rubbed at his face with both hands.

“That’s enough for tonight. I’m starting to feel, I don’t know, weird. Like I’m only going to make things worse. I don’t want Mikasa to get mad or upset.”

“Okay.” Jean turned off his tablet and turned to shove it back into his bag. “I should go home anyway, I have work tomorrow.”

“You have a job?” Eren teased. Jean scowled at him, but Eren just laughed and moved to jump up onto the back counter, swinging his legs slightly. The uncomfortable feeling of being watched was still there, but he chose to ignore it.

“You catch up on Voltron?” Jean asked, shouldering his bag.

“I’m pacing myself,” Eren insisted. “There’s only twelve episodes and it’s gonna be months before the next season comes out.”

“They’re already announced the release for the new year, you don’t have _that_  long to wait.”

“Still!” Eren pointed his finger at Jean. “Pacing. I’m gonna start _Stranger Things_  and alternate between the two.”

“If you’re going on a Netflix Original binge, you should watch _Scream_.” Jean grinned. “All about people getting killed in a small town.”

Eren gave him an annoyed look. “Thanks, just what I needed while sitting alone in a store in the middle of the night in a small town.”

“With a potential serial killer having moved in,” Jean reminded him helpfully.

Eren picked up a box of tic tacs from the closest display and hurled them at his friend’s head. He missed, but the satisfaction of having attempted to injure him helped.

“We still going to that party Annie invited you to in Stohess?” he asked, rearranging the strap of his bag. “You sure it’s cool for me to come?”

“Yeah, should be fine as long as I’m with you.” Eren rubbed the back of his head. “Not sure I’ll be conscious for it, but I’ll do what I can to sleep before the party.”

He couldn’t help but turn around while he spoke, scanning the area again for signs of people. He couldn’t shake the feeling of someone being out there, lurking in the shadows, watching him. The store’s small lot was empty, and there was only one car in the lot across the street, but even from where he sat he could tell it was Sasha Braus’ car, meaning she had snuck out of the house to hang out with Connie Springer and hadn’t wanted her parents to know.

A moot point, since everyone knew that was where Sasha went when she snuck out of the house. They were wannabe hackers, and not very good at it from what Eren could tell. Connie was all right at the general IT kind of stuff, but Sasha spent more time trying to nuke potatoes and eat all of Connie’s secret stash of Twizzlers to actually learn anything useful. Besides, it was probably for the best that they sucked so much. Neither would survive prison.

Connie was too much of a wimp, and Sasha would die not being able to eat every hour.

He wondered if they were hanging out on Jean’s roof again. Eren didn’t know what their fascination for it was, but he often went by Jean’s place late at night and found the two of them sitting up near the chimney with their laptops. He didn’t know how they got up there, and he never bothered to ask. Maybe Jean let them go through the attic or something.

“Hey.” Eren turned back to Jean, who was watching him curiously. “Seriously, _are_  you okay?”

“What? Yeah.” Eren rubbed at his eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just, you know, tired.”

“Right.” Jean hoisted his bag strap higher on his shoulder. “Well, I’m gonna go then and—”

The door to the store opened and when they both turned to look at it, Eren felt his gut twist uncomfortably. Levi had just walked in, gaze shifting to regard the two at the till before moving further into the store.

Eren practically climbed over the front counter to grab at Jean’s shirt, yanking him closer. “Don’t you _dare_  leave me alone in this store with him at three in the morning!” he hissed.

“Why, so he can kill _two_  people instead of one?!” Jean demanded quietly, yanking at Eren’s wrist to try and force him to release him. “If you die, I can be a witness to who was last seen with you! Let go!”

“I swear to God, Horseface, I will shave your head in your sleep if you leave me alone right now!”

Surprisingly, Jean seemed to value his hairstyle more than his life, because he paused and scowled angrily before muttering that Eren was a dick. He motioned for Eren to release him, then moved to the side so he could come around the counter, standing behind the till with the brunet. Obviously he felt safer having the counter between them and the serial killer.

The two of them stood there awkwardly, trying to locate Levi in the small store. It was pitch silent aside from Eren and Jean’s breathing. Eren felt his breathing was pretty normal, but Jean sounded like a fucking locomotive. He was almost tempted to reach over and slap a hand over his nose and mouth to make him shut up.

“Where is he?” Jean whispered, leaning closer to Eren. “I can’t see him.”

“He’s too short to see over the shelves,” Eren muttered. Honestly, most people _were_  too short to see over the shelves, but reminding himself of how short Levi was made him feel less scary.

“Is he not moving or something?” Jean whispered again.

“He’s quiet.” Unnaturally quiet, in Eren’s opinion, but he wasn’t going to fuel Jean’s fear the way his friend liked to fuel his. But it was true.

Levi was fucking unnaturally quiet. Eren understood he was fairly small, but people usually made noise when they walked, right? Even when they tried to be quiet, people made noise. Levi didn’t make noise. Ever. He could sneak up on Eren like nobody’s business and it scared him.

It was while he was standing there with Jean that something occurred to him, especially since the feeling was still there, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

He turned his back to the store so he could whisper to Jean, not sure why he should turn his back but feeling like his voice would carry less.

“Okay, so you know how you kept asking me if I was okay earlier? Well honestly, I feel like someone’s been watching me and magically Levi walks in, and now the feeling is more intense than ever.”

“Wait, you think the serial killer is _stalking_  you?” Jean hissed, looking horrified.

“He’s not a serial killer!” Eren insisted. _At least, I hope,_  he thought to himself. “It’s just weird, right? I feel watched and he shows up?”

“Why would he be watching you?”

“To kidnap me and shove me in that cage he has in his basement?! I don’t know, why does anyone stalk anybody?!”

“Where’s the sour cream and onion Ruffles?”

Eren let out a shout, whipping around, and even Jean stiffened and looked ready to jump out of his own skin. Levi had snuck up on them, which wasn’t anything new for Eren.

“Can you shuffle your feet or something?!” Eren all but shouted in his face, leaning forward on the counter. “Are you _trying_  to give me a heart attack?!”

Levi’s dark eyes narrowed and Eren hastily shifted his gaze to his left ear. He’d gotten better at looking him in the eye lately, but only for a few seconds. Anything longer and he freaked out and felt ready to wet himself.

“I’m sorry if you and your boyfriend are too busy talking about me kidnapping and murdering people that you can’t pay attention to a customer in your store,” he snapped irately. “Where the fuck are my chips?”

“Are you blind, they’re right there!” Eren pointed over Levi’s shoulder. “You literally look at them every day when you’re behind the till!”

Levi turned and while Eren may not have known him very well, he could tell that he was agitated and angry about something. The man moved four steps to the chip rack and grabbed a bag so violently the entire display fell over with a loud crash. He stepped over the fallen bags and towards another part of the store without bothering to clean up or even apologize.

“I am going to make your life _miserable_  during our next shift!” Eren shouted after him, ignoring the way Jean was yanking on his arm and trying to cover his mouth.

“Only if you can stop yourself from wetting your pants,” was Levi’s call from somewhere in the back of the store.

Eren fumed and slapped at Jean to make him stop being a weirdo. He huffed and stomped out from behind the counter, picking up the fallen rack and beginning to put the chips back where they needed to be.

Jean stayed with him for the extra twenty-seven fucking minutes Levi was wandering around the store. When Levi left, Jean finally took his leave and Eren fell into the chair behind the till, fuming so angrily he couldn’t even tell the feeling of being watched was gone.

* * *

“Shit! Shit! Oh shit!” Eren raced back and forth around his room trying to find his wallet. He didn’t technically _need_  it since he was just going to work, but it was always a good idea to have it on him.

At this point, he felt it might be better to just leave and hope he didn’t need it. He wasn’t driving, and he also didn’t need to pay for anything at the store. His family always just kept track of what they took to ensure the inventory didn’t get affected too much. There was no point in owning a store if they paid for their own items, that would just be stupid.

“Fuck it!” Giving up on locating his wallet, he threw open his bedroom door and barrelled down the stairs, his phone going off in his pocket. “Mikasa! Can you drive me to the store?” He grabbed his laptop bag from the bottom of the stairs and rushed towards the kitchen. She wasn’t there, and he wondered if maybe she’d left for work already. If she had, he was fucked.

“Sure.”

Letting out a shout, he turned and saw her at the bottom of the stairs, beginning to move to the closet to get her shoes on.

“Don’t _do_  that! Between you and Levi sneaking up on me, it’s a miracle I haven’t had a heart attack!” He massaged at the spot above his heart with one hand, trying to get it to stop beating double-time in his chest.

She said nothing, remaining as stoic as always while putting on her shoes. Eren shoved his own feet into his sneakers and followed her out of the house, slamming the door loudly. They both climbed into her car and Eren pulled out his phone once he’d finished with his seatbelt.

**[Reiner]**  
Hey, are you almost here?   
**[Reiner]**  
You know your dad doesn’t trust me alone in the store, so I can’t let the new guy leave  
 **[Reiner]**  
He’s starting to get really grouchy and, honestly, he’s scaring me a little.

**[JaegerMeister]**  
omw  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
bts

**[Reiner]**  
I don’t trust you when you say “be there soon”  
 **[Reiner]**  
Are you at least in a car?

**[JaegerMeister]**  
yes

**[Reiner]**  
Good.

Eren put his phone away after checking the time. It was only a few minutes past six, he was barely even late. Levi could calm the fuck down and wait an extra few minutes.

Honestly, he felt worse for Reiner because he had practically begged on his hands and knees the previous day he’d come by with Annie for Reiner to take his daytime shift. There had been a complication at the clinic, so his father was busy, and it was bad enough that he’d asked Mikasa to come in on her day off. She’d only been home for a few hours to get some sleep and take a shower, so he was lucky to have caught her at all.

His mother was currently visiting an old friend who had gotten out of this Godforsaken town so that meant Eren had been left to man the store. Under normal circumstances, it would’ve been fine, except for the fact that Eren had _just_  done the night shift, and was now expected to do the daytime shift _and_  the night shift. He wasn’t a machine, he needed sleep, too.

Annie had ended up being the reason Reiner had agreed to work on his day off, which allowed Eren time to sleep, shower, and actually spend some time doing something he wanted to do. Now it was time for the night shift, and he’d been so relaxed he’d ended up being late. He felt bad for doing that to Reiner. Didn’t give a shit about Levi.

He wondered how surprised he must’ve been walking in to see someone _other_  than Eren. After all, to date he’d only worked shifts with Eren, not counting that one time he’d shown up early and worked with Carla.

Sighing and slouching in his seat, Eren stared out the window, watching the sun slowly begin to set while Mikasa drove them to the store. It was still so early out, he was jealous his entire life revolved around this store. His father needed to hire more people; with Thomas leaving and Reiner being a butt, they needed other managers so that Eren could have a social life. He was starting to feel suffocated.

Mikasa pulled into the lot and Eren sighed, straightening and unfastening his seatbelt.

“Thanks Mikasa.” He leaned over to kiss her cheek. He wasn’t sure why, he just felt like he needed to show her extra support and love lately. “I hope work is okay.”

“You too. If I’m off early, I’ll make you something and bring it by.”

“You’re the best.” He grinned at her then pushed open the door, stepping out of the car.

He hurried towards the entrance, the strap of his laptop bag digging into his shoulder. He’d barely even gotten the door open when Levi was in his face.

“You’re late!”

Eren was so taken aback that his head actually jerked back. Levi looked livid, eyes flashing dangerously. They actually looked almost shiny today, for some odd reason, and he seemed even more agitated than he had the other night when he’d come in.

“I’m—I’m really sorry,” Eren said uncomfortably. “I was running errands and relaxing and stuff and I just kind of lost track of time. I didn’t mean to—”

“That’s not a good enough excuse!” Levi snapped, turning his back on him and stomping to the till, presumably to collect his belongings. “This was incredibly irresponsible of you! You’re a fucking adult, you need to be more conscious of other people and the fact that you being late delayed my departure as well as Reiner’s! I have shit to do and places to be, I have fucking _plans_  tonight and you being _late_  is affecting _my_  plans!”

He was shoving things violently into his own laptop bag, grabbing various cables and shoving things roughly where he needed them to go.

“Whoa,” Eren insisted, moving towards the till. “You need to calm down. I’m _sorry_. It was an accident.”

“Don’t let it happen again!” Levi snapped, throwing the laptop bag over his shoulder and moving out from behind the till. He was kind enough not to shoulder past Eren, but when he reached the door, he threw it open so hard that the glass window shattered, making Eren jump.

Levi had the decency to pause at the action, standing just beyond the door, a few pieces of glass around his feet.

“I’ll pay for that tomorrow. I have to go.”

He left without another word, jogging quickly to his truck. Eren watched him get behind the wheel and speed out of the lot and onto the road, heading back towards his house.

Eren let out a slow, shaky breath, rubbing the back of his head. “Okay. So punctuality is a big thing for him...”

He heard the squeak of sneakers behind him and turned, seeing Reiner coming towards the front. His eyes were on the shattered front window and he let out a whistle, moving towards it. The frame was still intact, but the glass portion was completely gone, only a few slivers of it sticking out of the bottom.

“Yeah, he was in a foul mood all day, but the second it hit six and I told him he couldn’t leave, I thought he was going to pick me up and hurl me across the store.” Reiner crossed his large, beefy arms and turned to Eren. “He’s a little intimidating, if I’m going to be honest, and I’m twice his size.”

“It’s going around,” Eren admitted, tugging at the hair on the back of his head once then sighing and dropping his hand. “Can you help me with the glass? I need to tape up the door, too. I’ll tell dad, he can pay you for the overtime.”

“I actually needed groceries, so if you give me that for free instead, I’d rather that.”

“Sure.”

The two of them began to clean up the glass, having people come through the other door at the front since Levi had managed to only break one of the double doors. Eren still hadn’t even changed, but everyone could tell there had been a bit of a situation, so they just found their necessities, paid, and left.

It took almost twenty minutes to make sure they hadn’t missed any of the glass, and another fifteen to get a piece of plastic to stick to the door properly. It wasn’t perfect, but for now it would do.

He texted his father about what happened, expecting him to immediately fire Levi, but instead Grisha insisted replacing the glass would come out of _Eren’s_  pay for being late and causing both Reiner and Levi trouble. He didn’t know why he’d expected his father to take his side, but he was annoyed that he hadn’t.

“This okay?” Reiner asked, having put a basket of items on the counter. Eren just nodded, figuring he could print a second receipt and add it to the family’s list of items bought. He’d already told his dad what he was doing for Reiner, so it wasn’t going to be an issue.

He was in the middle of scanning the basket when Connie’s father walked in, moving towards the counter with a smile.

“Hey Eren. Got a call from that new fella a while ago asking me to help out with replacing your door. I got a buddy up in Trost who can get the glass replaced for cheap, so just wanted to let you know I was gonna be measuring the door for him. That okay?”

Eren was startled at how quickly Levi had gotten on fixing the door. He’d assumed his plans would make him too busy to get to it until the following day, especially considering he’d said so himself, but apparently he’d found the time.

“Sure,” he said, realizing he hadn’t answered. “Um, thanks.”

He finished up with Reiner’s items, then bid him goodnight, watching Connie’s father measure the door and write things down in a notebook. He stuck around for a while after so they could chat, the sun setting slowly behind Eren. They were mostly talking about the door repairs, but when the man went to leave, Eren couldn’t help blurting out another question.

“I hear you were commissioned a cage,” he said before fully deciding to do so. “For the new guy, Levi.”

Connie’s father turned, having been heading for the door, and he wandered back over to Eren with a nod. “Sure did. Bit of a strange fella, but nice enough. Felt real bad about the door, too.”

“Right,” Eren said dubiously. “Um, did–did he tell you _why_  he wanted a cage? Like, isn’t that kind of weird? Did you ask him about it or anything?”

“It’s not really any of my business, Eren.”

“No, I-I know that, I just... I mean, it’s weird, right?” He couldn’t help but wonder if maybe his imagination—and Jean’s—was going places. After all, there could’ve been a perfectly reasonable explanation. He didn’t know _what_  that explanation could be, but there had to be one. No real serial killer would be stupid enough to move to a small town and commission a cage from the only metalworker in the area.

The older man sighed and leaned closer. “Between you and me, it’s for his new book.”

“His book?” Eren asked slowly, confused. “He asked you to build a cage because of his book?”

“Said something about a kidnapped person being the main character, and they’re trapped in a cage the whole book. Wanted a hands-on experience of it, so he commissioned the cage so he could spend some time writing inside it, get a feel for it.” The man shrugged. “Sounds crazy, but writers, you know? They do crazy things.”

“Right.”

The man bid him goodnight and said he’d have his friend out in the morning to replace the window, then left.

“That guy is so fucking weird,” Eren whispered to himself, rubbing at his face and then moving to jump up onto the back counter, pulling out his phone. He had a text message and when he checked it, he smiled.

**[Annie]**  
Reiner says the new guy broke the door  
 **[Annie]**  
Good to know I’m not the only one you drive crazy

**[JaegerMeister]**  
i was literally 8 mins late  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
he was being unreasonable  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
reiner got free food from it though

**[Annie]**  
I know  
 **[Annie]**  
He and Bert came over   
**[Annie]**  
They’re gone now  
 **[Annie]**  
You should come over after work  
 **[Annie]**  
I haven’t seen you in a long time

**[JaegerMeister]**  
i’m gonna SLEEP when I get off work

**[Annie]**  
I didn’t say you couldn’t sleep  
 **[Annie]**  
Come over  
 **[Annie]**  
Sleep on my bed  
 **[Annie]**  
I’ll nap with you.

Eren couldn’t help but smile a little at that. It was true, he hadn’t been around Annie in a while, and maybe she felt like they were drifting. He was just so busy with work, and she also had her own job. She wanted to spend time with him, even if it was just sleeping. Wasn’t like they’d never slept in the same bed before.

**[JaegerMeister]**  
yeah okay  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
i’ll be done at eight  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
come get me?  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
and you better have the bed ready for me

**[Annie]**  
See you then

Smiling, Eren turned off the screen and replaced his phone, rubbing the back of his neck.

He felt like he was being watched again.

* * *

“So?” Eren asked, walking into Mikasa’s room and doing a little spin, arms out on either side of himself. “What do you think?”

“I think you’re trying way too hard for a stupid party,” was her ever-so-kind response. She was still angry he was going out without her, and he knew it. But it was a party Annie had invited him to, which meant Annie would _be_  there. And he was going with Jean, so that was two people she didn’t like, one of whom didn’t like _her_. There was no scenario where the four of them could go together and get along. Even adding Armin to the mix wouldn’t help. If anything, it would make things worse since he always seemed to be on Mikasa’s side.

Eren supposed it made sense. Armin, Mikasa, Jean and himself had been friends since forever. He always spent more time with Jean, despite their constant fighting, because they were very similar in personality. Armin was really smart, and Mikasa was fairly studious. It made sense they’d grown closer over the years. Eren supposed he didn’t like thinking about it because he always wanted to be his sister’s best friend.

Which was weird for him to think about given Jean was _his_  best friend, so wanting her to consider him _her_  best friend seemed selfish.

Shrugging the thought off, he just waited for her to tell him he looked okay, which she finally did after a long staring match before returning to whatever she was doing on her laptop. She was lying on her bed facing the door with the computer in front of her so Eren couldn’t see the screen.

He started to enter her room so he could talk to her a bit more and get a look at what she was working on when their father exited his bedroom.

“Eren. Ready to go?” He stopped beside him in the corridor and looked him up and down. “Bit dressy for inventory, don’t you think?”

“Inven—what?” Eren pointed at his father. “No. No, I _told_  you I had plans tonight. I’m not going for inventory!”

Grisha gave him a disapproving look. “Eren, it’s the last Saturday of the month. It’s always inventory night, and you’ve known this for the past twenty-two years of your life.”

“Dad, I have literally been working myself to the bone at a store I don’t even want to take over!” Eren motioned himself, beginning to get angry. “I literally have no social life! I need time off, too! You can’t just expect me to drop everything all the time to work at the store!”

His father crossed his arms, watching him intently. “So having a well-paying job, getting free groceries and living rent-free in your parent’s house isn’t enough of an incentive for you? If you’d like me to find someone else to replace you, Eren, I’m more than happy to do so, but then you need to consider the fact that you’ll have no money and, without a secondary education, you’ll be hard-pressed to find something outside of Shiganshina. Opportunities are not as wide-spread as they used to be.”

Letting out a small scoff, Eren stuttered, trying to find words to get out of this. Mikasa had the decency to stay silent, as if trying to make him forget she was even there.

“That’s really unfair,” Eren insisted.

“Why? You keep saying you hate the job and don’t even want the shop.” Grisha shrugged. “If you’re serious about that, then what’s unfair about what I said?”

The two of them stood facing one another, Eren fuming angrily and his father watching him. With a scowl, Eren checked the time on his phone. If they left now, he could finish well before the party ended. One, maybe two in the morning. It’d still be going on, and he was sure Jean wouldn’t mind waiting. He had a new video game he was trying to beat, and giving him extra time would be a blessing.

“Fine,” Eren snapped angrily, turning so he could go back to his room and change. “But once we’re gone inventory, I’m leaving.”

He slammed his door loudly, wanting to throw a tantrum but knowing that the last time he did that he punched a hole through the drywall. Not only had he broken his hand, but he’d been grounded for a month for damaging the wall.

Scrolling through his phone angrily, he found Jean’s number and hit the call button, placing it against his ear.

_“Yo, what’s up?”_  Jean’s distracted voice asked down the line. Eren could hear gunshots and explosions in the background, suggesting he was playing.

“It’s inventory night.”

_“Uh huh.”_  A pause. _“Wait, what?”_

“It’s fucking inventory night. My dad gave me an ultimatum, like a fucking asshole.”

_“Oh.”_  The sounds in the background ceased, meaning he’d paused the game. _“So... no party?”_

He didn’t even sound particularly crushed. Eren knew he wanted to go, but obviously this game was pissing him off enough that he was all right staying home, too.

“No, we’re going. Inventory should be done around one, _maybe_ two. You good with that?”

_“Sure. I can just lounge until then, maybe take a nap if I feel tired. Just call me when you’re close to being done and we can header.”_

“Thanks Jean. Sorry.”

_“Whatever man, more time for me to beat this stupid game.”_

“Yeah, I figured. I’ll call you later.”

He hung up and shoved his phone in his pocket. He was still annoyed while he changed into more casual clothes, removing his slacks and loose button-down and trading them out for jeans and a beat up Grateful Dead T-shirt.

Shoving his clothes into a bag, he pulled it over his shoulder and shoved his phone and wallet into his pockets. When he exited his room and headed downstairs, his father was in the kitchen pouring coffee into two thermoses.

“Ready to go?” he asked when he caught sight of Eren.

“Let’s go. The sooner it’s done, the better. I can still make the party.”

He exited the house without waiting for his father, moving to the man’s truck and climbing in since it wasn’t locked. He slammed the door hard and sat pouting, waiting for his father to exit. After weeks of looking forward to this, it was now completely ruined. Not to mention Annie wasn’t going to be happy about it, considering she’d been excited to see him. Well, excited wasn’t the right word. Annie didn’t really show emotion, kind of like Mikasa.

“I should text her,” he realized. He was already buckled in though so he figured he’d do it at the store once they arrived.

His father exited the house a few moments later, kissing Carla and waving while heading for the truck. He climbed in beside Eren and handed him the thermoses, which he took from him, but under heavy protest in his head.

The drive to the store was silent, Grisha having turned on the radio once it became clear Eren didn’t want to speak to him. He knew it was childish, but he was pissed. He’d been looking forward to this since Annie had invited him, and now it was ruined.

When the car was parked, Eren kicked open the door and slammed it behind him, stalking angrily towards the front doors. There was a large sign already in the window reminding everyone it was inventory night. Virtually everyone in town knew that the last Saturday of every month was inventory night, so it was a moot point, but always a good reminder. Eren himself wished he’d remembered sooner but now that he was out of school and not working a usual nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday job, it made it difficult to keep the days straight.

He pushed open the door, the glass having been replaced the day after it had been broken. That had been almost a week ago at this point, and when he looked up at the till, he was somewhat startled to find Levi there.

“Hello,” Levi said.

“Hi,” Eren replied, feeling awkward.

They hadn’t seen one another since the day he’d flown off the handle and broken the door. Grisha had scheduled things to ensure they wouldn’t run into one another for a while, probably figuring it was safer for the store.

“Eren.”

The brunet looked up when Reiner headed towards him, frowning.

“Hey,” he muttered, moving past him towards the back.

“What are you doing here? I thought you’d be on your way to the party.” Reiner was following after him towards the office, where Eren threw his bag of clothes down and fell heavily into the desk chair.

“Yeah, me too. But turns out today is inventory night, and we all know my dad needs me here to make sure he can ruin my life.”

“Are you serious?” Reiner asked, shaking his head. “Shit, Annie’s gonna be _pissed_.”

“Tell her I’ll be there,” he insisted. “Just, you know, later. After inventory. One, two at the latest.”

“You better be. She was looking forward to seeing you.” He rubbed the back of his head and sighed. “Well, I gotta head out or I’ll be late. Work fast, okay?”

“Sure. I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah.” Reiner turned and left the office, passing Grisha on his way in.

“All right. Let’s get the equipment set up. You can start in the front, I’ll start in the storage room.”

“Whatever.” Eren got to his feet and pushed past his father, heading to the front. Levi was still packing his things away, sipping at something in a takeaway cup that appeared to be tea, but Reiner seemed to have left. “Excuse me,” he muttered, moving behind the till and around Levi, then bending down so he could pull the cables and scanners out from under the counter.

He couldn’t help but notice that Levi seemed to be going very slowly in his packing up, like he was procrastinating. Eren didn’t dwell on it, unravelling the cable and beginning to move to the storage room with one end, getting it set up back there for his father. When he moved back to the front, Levi was still there. Eren wished he’d leave, things were bad enough without awkward apologies. Not that he thought Levi would apologize, but still.

“Going to a party tonight?” Levi suddenly asked while Eren was plugging one of the cables into the back of the store’s computer.

He paused, watching the writer. How had he heard him and Reiner from the back of the store?

“I was going to,” he said slowly. “Inventory kind of cut that short, but I can probably still make it if we finish early.”

Levi seemed to hesitate before speaking again, frowning and clenching his jaw. He zipped his laptop bag shut and slung it over his shoulder, picking up the takeaway cup once it was settled.

“I would...” He trailed off, turning his back on Eren, who shrugged and started fiddling with the cable again. “I would really rather you didn’t go out tonight. It’d be a better idea if you stayed here, with your dad.”

Eren stared openly again, hands frozen in what they’d been doing. “Why?” he asked slowly, finding that to have been a weird thing to say.

“I don’t know, I just... have a bad feeling,” Levi muttered, moving out from around the till. “I’d keep the horse away from the party, too. He might get hurt if you don’t.” Levi pushed out of the store without another word, leaving Eren standing there staring at the spot he’d just been.

He had a _feeling_? How had he even _known_  about the party? And why had he called Jean a horse? Eren had never called Jean a horse right in front of Levi. There was that one time he’d come in late at night and Jean had been around, but they’d been hissing words at one another, there was no way Levi could hear them! What, was he Superman now or something? Did he have super-hearing? What the hell was going on?

“Eren?”

“What?!” Eren shouted, having been so startled he’d raised his voice out of fright.

Grisha just gave him a weird look, moved to plug the cable in and disappeared towards the back, probably mistaking Eren’s fear for anger. Rubbing at his face, Eren struggled to keep himself under control, clearing his throat and turning to set up the second scanner so he could start working.

For some reason, he found himself less interested in working quickly anymore. So what if he missed the party? Something about Levi’s words really freaked him out.

* * *

Inventory finished at almost five in the morning. There had been a huge discrepancy with most of the items and Grisha had realized the scanner’s program had malfunctioned, forcing them to shut everything down and start all over. That had happened around one-fifteen meaning if the scanners _hadn’t_  messed up, he’d have made the party.

He’d texted Annie with an apology, and while she’d said it was fine, he could tell that it wasn’t. There was nothing he could do, though, so he’d apologized a second time, promised her he’d make it up to her, and then had texted Jean to say the party was a no-go.

He didn’t seem to mind, if his response was any indication. He’d probably still not beaten the game. Eren didn’t know when Jean slept, he didn’t ever seem to. Advantages, he supposed, of mostly mooching off his parents. He claimed he had a job, but nobody seemed to know what it was, and more often than not, Jean was hanging out at Hannes’ coffee shop on his laptop.

After re-scanning the whole store once more, and finding only two items slightly off, Grisha confirmed it had been a success and even apologized for Eren not being able to make the party. He’d shrugged and insisted it was fine, and apologized himself for being so moody about it. They’d waited for Carla to arrive to take the first shift and had headed home for some much needed sleep.

It was during this much needed sleep that Eren’s phone went off, the ring loud and shrill and positively hateful. He wanted to break the damn thing the second he realized he’d forgotten to turn it onto silent.

Groping around on his night stand, he finally found it and pulled it closer to his face.

Jean.

Why the fuck was it always Jean? Didn’t he have anything better to do than make Eren’s life miserable? Was he personally offended at the thought of Eren actually getting some sleep?

“What?” he demanded, answering his phone. He did so mostly so he could yell at him.

_“Dude! Have you seen the news?”_

“I’m fucking sleeping, so obviously I haven’t,” he insisted, annoyed. Seriously, did Jean not sleep?

_“The party from last night, apparently there was an attack or something!”_

That woke Eren right up and he jerked up into bed, hand tightening around his phone. “What? What do you mean an attack? What happened?”

_“No one knows, they haven’t leaked the full story yet! Rumour is the party was in full swing and then around one-thirty, someone suddenly started screaming and all these people were attacked! They don’t know what the cause is, but sources are saying it almost looks like someone just ran by with a knife and started slashing at people, but no one remembers seeing any weapons and all the slashes are weird and jagged!”_

“Annie.” Eren hung up on Jean while he was still speaking and scrolled through his contacts. His heart was beating hard and fast in his chest and he felt ready to be sick. Finding her name, he called it and put the phone to his ear.

“Pick up,” he whispered. “Pick up, pick up, pick—”

_“What?”_

A loud sigh of relief escaped him and he covered his face with his free hand. “Oh, thank God. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

_“I’m fine, why?”_

“Didn’t you hear?” Eren frowned. “There was an attack at that party last night.”

_“Reiner, Bert and I left after you bailed.”_  She sounded offended at it, but seemed less offended than she would’ve been had there not been an attack. Or maybe it was the call that made her a little less angry. _“What happened?”_

“I don’t know, I kinda hung up on Jean...” He laughed awkwardly and rubbed at his eyes. “Ah, shit. Okay. Sorry. I was just—I was worried. I’m glad you’re okay. And Reiner and Bert, too.” He winced. “Sorry I couldn’t make it.”

_“As it turns out, probably for the best.”_

“Yeah.” He rubbed at a spot on his checkered pyjama pants. “Um, I’ll make it up to you. Dinner and a movie? Tomorrow? Are you free?”

_“Are you?”_

She was _definitely_  mad. “I will be there no matter what. I promise.”

_“That’s what you said last time.”_

“I _promise_ ,” he emphasized. “I’ll be there. Tomorrow, okay?”

_“Tomorrow.”_ She hung up.

Eren did as well, sighing and raking a hand through his hair. He was really glad she was okay. Actually, he was really glad he and Jean hadn’t gone. He’d have felt awful if anything had happened to Jean considering he would’ve only been there because of Eren. He supposed in a way, it was a good thing he hadn’t ended up going.

He was lying back down when a thought occurred to him. Levi had warned him before leaving the store not to go out. He’d said he had a bad feeling.

And now Eren couldn’t help but wonder if Levi had _actually_  had a bad feeling... or if he was the reason people had gotten hurt.


	5. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> MarioKart (c) Nintendo  
> Halo (c) Bungie

Today was not going to be a good day. He felt exhausted, and knew he looked like shit. After-effect, as he knew, and nothing he could do about it. The last few days had been... hard. They often were.

The last thing he wanted to do was walk into the stupid store and get ragged on by Eren, but he didn’t have much of a choice when his schedule advised him that he had to work today. So he forced himself out of bed, dressed, grabbed his laptop and left his house.

The drive down was short, as it always was, and when he stopped in front of the store, he found Eren behind the till, his actions jerky and rough. He was obviously in a bad mood. Terrific. Exactly what he needed today.

Climbing out of the truck, Levi slammed the door and walked towards the entrance, eying the new glass window as a reminder never to get that angry in public again. He couldn’t afford to let people know how strong he was. It always made them uncomfortable, as did many other things about him.

When he pushed open the door, he hadn’t even fully entered the place when Eren’s angry voice drifted through the air.

“It’s about fucking time,” he snapped, which only worsened Levi’s already dark mood. “You’re late.”

“Like you’ve never been late,” Levi retorted, ignoring the younger man and moving to the counter. He dropped his bag to the floor, realizing belatedly that his laptop was in it. He scowled, bending down to reach inside so he could make sure it had survived the drop. When he pulled it out and placed it on the counter, it booted up as normal upon being opened and he let out a small breath of relief. He didn’t need his editor riding his ass if he’d lost the story and had to start from scratch. He hadn’t been backing it up on his other laptop lately, something he should really get to when he got home later.

Getting himself set up while Eren muttered and shuffled about uselessly, like always, Levi got the manuscript open and scrolled down to the section he’d been working on. It was giving him a lot of trouble, and he couldn’t figure out how to fix it. The two characters in this story didn’t have as much chemistry, and he felt like it was mostly because he was trying too hard to get them together. He couldn’t seem to just let it happen gradually, so forcing it was making it seem, well, _forced_.

After all, it was hard to make a kidnap victim fall for his kidnapper. Good in theory, not so much in real life. He was fairly certain kidnapping Eren and locking him in his basement would not yield those results.

He forced the thought away savagely, rubbing at his eyes before focussing again.

Frustrated, he deleted a paragraph and went about trying something different, cocking his head to make sure he kept track of Eren. He sounded like he was in the storage room, which was where he tended to sequester himself whenever they worked together. It also sounded like he was standing on a box. The idiot was going to hurt himself.

Levi’s fingers paused, his brain warring with him. A part of him wanted to let the oaf brain himself against the shelves, but another part of him insisted that would be a bad thing and he should go to him immediately. He let the two sides war for a few seconds before sighing in defeat and standing, moving out from behind the till and towards the storage room. When he pushed open the door, he saw Eren standing on one of the boxes while reaching for something on the top shelf, like a moron. Levi crossed his arms, watching and waiting for the inevitable.

When Eren lifted one foot off the box, Levi let his arms drop so he could hold them out and, as predicted, the brunet let out a shout and fell backwards. Luckily for him—and his extremely thick skull—Levi was right behind him and he caught the falling man before he could hurt himself, holding him with one arm beneath his shoulders and the other beneath his knees.

Eren froze in place, staring up at Levi with his clenched fists against his own chest, his brain very obviously slowly processing what had just happened. Then, as if it had suddenly clicked, he began kicking out his legs almost violently, flailing his arms.

“Let me go! Put me down! I said let go!” He got his feet to cooperate and onto the ground, then shoved Levi away, stumbling slightly himself when the action caused _him_  to move and not Levi.

“You’re welcome.”

“I didn’t _ask_  you to come and help me!” Eren jabbed an angry finger in his direction, almost poking him in the eye. “I was perfectly fine on my own!”

“Falling to your death?”

“I _said_  I was _fine_!” He moved so he was right in Levi’s face, staring down at him, green eyes blazing. It was making an uncomfortable feeling rise in the pit of Levi’s stomach. One he was finding very hard to control. “I was _fine_ before you got here, and fine _after_  you got here _without_  your help! Just leave me alo—”

The feeling snapped and Levi pushed Eren backwards, forgetting himself. The action made the other man slam much harder than he’d intended into the shelves, several small boxes of chocolate bars raining down over them.

“What the _fuck_! Wha—”

He didn’t let him finish. He moved into his personal space, lips pressing to his throat and teeth digging into his flesh, tugging and sucking. One hand came up to stop the fist flying for his face and the other moved down to between Eren’s legs, gripping his cock tightly through his jeans. Fuck, _fuck_! He hadn’t meant to let it get this far! He hadn’t meant to...

But he wanted him. Fuck, he wanted him so badly. He’d never wanted anyone so badly in his life. He wanted to fucking eat him alive.

Making sure not to break skin, Levi pulled away from Eren’s neck, licking at the darkening mark he’d left behind and shifting the hand holding his wrist up into Eren’s hair. He wrenched his head back, unconcerned with the fact that the other might try and punch him again. He seemed to be in too much shock to move right then, so Levi took advantage of it, kissing him hard while his other hand moved up beneath his shirt, then down, past the hem of his pants, into his boxers and—

Levi jerked up in bed, practically propelling off the mattress and bringing the sheets with him. His breathing was harsh and ragged, skin coated in sweat, and his hair stuck to his forehead uncomfortably. He stumbled back a step, legs tangled in his sheets, and managed to press his back to the wall, sliding down until he was sitting on his ass on the cold wooden floor. He raked one shaky hand through his sweat-soaked hair and clenched his eyes shut. It didn’t help. If anything, it only made things worse, because now he was watching his hand dip down lower into Eren’s pants and—

He slammed his right fist backwards into the wall, hard. The plaster broke on impact, forming a large hole. Terrific, now he’d have to fix that.

Struggling not to break anything else in his place, he reached up for the nightstand and grabbed his phone by the charger. When it dangled from the end, he unplugged it and quickly scrolled through his contacts, vaguely noting the time.

Three forty-eight in the morning.

Ignoring that, he hit the call button once he reached the name he needed and brought it to his ear, listening to it ring.

And ring.

And ri—

_“Levi.”_

“They’re getting worse,” he said in way of greeting, clenching his free hand into his wet bangs. “The dreams. They’re getting worse.”

Erwin said nothing for a few seconds, as if choosing his words carefully. _“I’ve expressed my concerns, Levi. You should come back. Whatever lead you to that town, to **him** , can’t be good. Something malicious is going on, you need to come back.” _

_“_ I can’t,” he snapped. “You know I can’t. It’s too late now.”

_“Too late, or you can’t bring yourself to leave?”_

Levi’s hand clenched around the phone, plastic cracking and he had to consciously release his grip before he broke it.

“I need to be here, Erwin.”

_“No, you need to be **here**. With us. What happened to Eld was awful, but that wasn’t your fault. Moving there is only going to make things worse. The dreams aren’t going to go away, and the closer you are to him, the worse they’ll be. What happens if you lose control?” _

“I won’t.”

_“You might.”_

“I won’t!” he shouted, slamming his fist into the ground. The wood cracked. Terrific. Something else to fix. He didn’t know why he’d thought speaking to Erwin would be a good idea. “I need to see him.”

_“Levi—”_

He didn’t wait for the lecture, he just hung up and got to his feet, moving across the room to grab a pair of jeans and a random shirt. He pulled the jeans on quickly, yanking the shirt over his head while heading for his bedroom door. He navigated through his dark house with ease, moving down the stairs to the first level and snatching his keys off the table in the front hall. Opting for a pair of flip-flops since he didn’t have any socks, he exited the house and locked the door behind himself.

Looking up at the dark sky while walking to his truck, he scowled at the moon angrily, then returned his gaze to the ground. He almost took the door off his truck when he wrenched it open, but he forced himself to calm down while climbing in and starting it. If he broke the truck, he’d have to walk to the store, and he couldn’t wait that long. He felt antsy. He felt uncomfortable, and nervous, and _worried_. He had to see Eren. He just had to make sure he was okay, had to make the feelings of fear and discomfort go away.

It took almost all the effort he possessed for him not to speed all the way to the store, keeping his foot in the same position the whole drive to stop from slamming the pedal to the floor. Eren would be fine, he’d survived twenty-two years of his life without any mishaps, so there was no reason to think that anything would be wrong _today_.

Levi turned his lights off when he neared the store, not wanting Eren to notice the lights and look out the window. He didn’t want him to think Levi was stalking him. Which he kind of was, a little bit. But only because the stupid feelings of unease followed him every waking moment when he _wasn’t_  with Eren! He couldn’t even fucking _sleep_  without worrying about the idiot!

When he turned to park in the small lot in front of the store, he let out a slow breath at the sight of Eren’s back. He was sitting on the back counter, as usual, posture slouched and both hands in front of himself. He was obviously on his phone, as he often was at this hour of the night. Kid couldn’t get enough of the storage room when they were together during the day, but at night, he just sat there the whole time on his phone. Sometimes he had his laptop, but usually he just browsed the internet or watched Netflix on the small device.

Turning off the engine, Levi leaned both arms against the steering wheel and rested his chin on them, eyes on the other man’s back. The panic he’d felt was starting to ebb, but didn’t disappear entirely. It never seemed to disappear entirely, as if there was a constant danger that Levi couldn’t quite pinpoint. Maybe that was why he always felt so anxious when they were apart. Because he didn’t know what was so dangerous.

And it wasn’t just Eren, either. Every few days, Levi checked in on his father, and his mother. He’d had tea with Carla Jaeger recently, and had even been invited back later in the week. He’d also camped outside Grisha’s clinic for almost five hours two nights ago. Something about the family just... bothered him. It made him feel protective, and he didn’t know why. He couldn’t figure it out.

Hell, he hadn’t even known why he’d shown up in Shiganshina to begin with. When he’d been looking to move, he’d been checking out the obvious places. Other big cities, a few condos still in Trost, any places similar to where he’d been living. But while he’d been looking, something in the pit of his stomach had told him he was making a mistake. He had somewhere else to be. Someone who needed him.

The dreams had started a week after he’d lost Eld. A faceless, nameless man being generally annoying and infuriating. It always started with a fight, and then Levi ended up in bed with him. Or against a tree. Or a floor. Really, the possibilities were endless. Always him protecting this faceless person and then fucking him. Levi knew nothing about this person except that he was definitely a man.

He’d been drawn to Shiganshina. He’d known he had to be there, known something was calling him to this tiny little town. So he’d stopped fighting the feeling and come. The second he’d crossed the border into the small down, he’d known he had to stay, so he’d called Erwin to get the movers to his place, where all of his items had been packed and ready to go, and had gotten him to send them in this general direction. Hadn’t even bought a place yet, and already he’d known he was staying.

And then he’d seen him. The little shit had just been sitting there, in the truck, waving like a fucking idiot. At first, Levi hadn’t thought anything of it. He’d stormed over and told him to fuck off, like he would have any other time, and everything seemed fine. Normal, even.

It wasn’t until that night that things got... weird.

He hadn’t known anything about him. Not his name, not where he lived or worked, nothing. All he knew was what he looked like, and that night, he’d dreamed he was walking through the woods and the moron had just fallen out of a tree, right into Levi’s arms. He’d woken up as soon as the clothes had started coming off, but the entire experience had shaken him only because he’d woken up realizing he was disappointed. He’d _wanted_  to finish that dream, he’d wanted to fuck the nameless—but now possessing a face—individual into the dirt floor of the forest.

When he’d walked into the store that day to apply for a job, it had been a complete fluke. He’d been wandering around looking for something and the store had pulled him the same way the town had. When he’d met Grisha Jaeger, all he could think about was that the man had been pulling him somehow, and that this was where he needed to be in this moment.

He hadn’t even been in the store for two minutes when the door opened and fucking Eren walked in. It wasn’t enough for him to be the man in his dreams, now he had to be around during his every waking moment, as well.

Being around him infuriated him. Being away from him terrified him. Levi couldn’t decide which he preferred more, so he settled with being close to him without Eren knowing it. If he wasn’t right beside him, he didn’t get angry. If he wasn’t too far away from him, he didn’t get anxious or worried.

Which was why he sat outside in his truck, watching Eren do something or another on his phone.

When Eren stretched a few minutes later, Levi’s eyes watched the way his muscles shifted beneath his shirt, biting at the inside of his cheek and swallowing hard. He hated how attractive he found him. Eren was annoying and frustrating, but Levi wasn’t blind. Even if his dreams weren’t telling him he wanted to fuck him, he was fairly certain he’d have managed those thoughts on his own.

He was attractive, and fiery, and strong. He had personality, and was one of the first people to ever have managed to mouth off at him so quickly. He could tell he still scared him a little, but Eren didn’t let that stop him from bossing him around, and that was... really hot.

“Great,” Levi muttered to himself. “Now I’m thinking of him sexually while I’m awake, too.”

He forced the thoughts from his mind, returning to the task at hand and watching Eren through the window, trying to determine what he was doing. He couldn’t hear anything so he guessed he was browsing the internet or on Tumblr. He seemed particularly fond of Tumblr, Levi had noticed. He didn’t get the appeal.

Ten minutes later, Levi cocked his head when he heard the sound of another car approaching. He didn’t know where it was headed, but just in case Eren turned around, Levi ducked and remained out of sight. He listened for the car to pass, but it didn’t. Instead, it stopped a few spots down from his truck and the engine stopped. He scowled, the unease rising, which was ridiculous because all sorts of people stopped in during the night. This wasn’t the first time Levi had been watching Eren from outside and seen someone enter for a late night snack or even just to chat. Still, he didn’t like it when people showed up at random hours, when it would be possible for anyone to do literally anything to Eren, with no one finding out until morning.

_“You owe me so big for this, Jaeger,”_ a girl’s voice said from the door as it closed.

_“Annie! You life-saver! Thank you!”_

Levi frowned, finding it harder to pick up their conversation now that the door had shut, but it was so quiet out today that he managed to listen in when he closed his eyes and concentrated really hard on his hearing.

_“I was about to die of boredom if my phone’s battery died,”_  Eren was saying.

_“Next time, bring your own charger and don’t call me in the middle of the night.”_

_“I only did it because I knew you’d still be up, given you’re an insomniac. You were probably chomping at the bit to come visit me. Admit it. Admit it!”_

This sparked an argument about Eren being an idiot and the girl, presumably the same Annie who had once visited him during a shift, wishing to cause him bodily harm. The only reason Levi didn’t exit his vehicle then and there was because it was obvious this was just how they spoke to each other. With Annie threatening to injure him.

Scowling, Levi thought about leaving before someone caught him, but he couldn’t bring himself to start the car back up. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t like Annie. A small part of him insisted it was jealousy, but that was ridiculous. He had nothing to be jealous of. For one thing, Eren didn’t belong to him, and for another, he didn’t belong to _Annie_ , either. He was just being stupid.

Still...

He stayed. He waited for Annie to leave, then sat in his truck watching Eren for close to three hours. By then, the sun was rising and his presence would be noticed. It was hard to leave, but after a few seconds longer of staring once he’d started his truck, he turned away and backed out of his spot, cranking the wheel and driving away, heading back to his house for some much needed sleep. Eren would be off soon. He would be home.

He would be safe.

If he was safe, Levi could sleep, and just pray he didn’t get any more weird dreams.

Not working out so well for him lately.

* * *

Levi scowled down at the mark on his wrist in annoyance, rubbing at it with his thumb in an attempt to get it off. No matter how hard he tried to rub at it, or how much soap he used on it, it didn’t seem to want to disappear. And it seemed to be darkening by the day. Sometimes it would almost look like a shape, but then it would lighten up a little bit and seem like a smudge once more. Then it would darken and the cycle would start up again.

Scowling, he rolled down the long sleeve of his shirt and climbed the porch steps, trying to ignore it and using that same hand to form a fist and knock on the door in front of him. He only had to wait a moment before it opened and he offered as best of a smile as he could manage.

“Levi! Come in, come in!” Carla moved aside and motioned him into the house, Levi nodding his thanks and entering without a word. He looked around, the same as he had last time, and inhaled deeply. He loved the smell in this place, and tried really hard not to think about why that might be.

Namely, that Eren also lived in this house. That definitely wasn’t why it smelled good. Not at all.

“I’m so glad you could make it today,” Carla said, leading the way into the kitchen. Levi heard movement from upstairs, the sound faint, but present. Mikasa was likely home. Levi had never met her, he’d only briefly seen her a few times at the store. From what he could tell, she was a quiet girl, but she seemed nice enough. Erwin had mentioned speaking to her once and had said she was very polite and pleasant.

Then again, to that giant oaf, anyone who could string together a coherent sentence was considered polite and pleasant. Levi was proof of that.

“Thank you for inviting me,” Levi said honestly, taking a seat at the kitchen table when he was motioned to, Carla rushing to turn on the kettle and grab some mugs.

“Oh, it was my pleasure! I quite enjoyed our conversation the last time you were here.” She turned back to him, setting the mugs down on the kitchen counter that separated her from the table and offering him a smile. “Small town, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. It’s nice to have a little bit of variety in the conversation. Oh! I bought your book!”

Levi was flattered to hear that. “You didn’t have to, I’d have been more than happy to lend you a copy. I have quite a few.”

“Don’t be silly, this is your livelihood.” She waved his words away while hurrying into another room. Levi could hear her rummaging around before returning with the first volume of his FBI series. It was the one he was best known for, which was ironic, considering.

“Would you like me to sign it?” he asked, wondering if that was why she’d grabbed it.

“I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Not an imposition. I’ve signed multiple copies for Pixis already.” Levi smirked a little. “I thought he was going to shit his pants when I walked into his office for the financing when I bought my place. He knew who I was the second I walked in.”

“Well, you’re very talented,” she said with a smile, bringing the book to the table and setting a pen down with it.

The kettle clicked behind her so she returned to the kitchen while Levi opened the book and uncapped the pen. He tried to make his message more personalized, considering he’d had tea with Carla twice already, but he wasn’t very good with people so he had a hard time with it. He managed to make it semi-personal before signing off his name and shutting the book, recapping the pen.

Carla appeared beside him then, holding out a mug of Orange Pekoe tea with one hand, another in her other hand for herself. It was while he was taking it that his eyes caught sight of the tattoo on her wrist. He’d noticed it before, the first time he’d met her and had shaken her hand, but something about it this time bothered him.

He kept his gaze locked on it while he sipped his tea and she sat down. She began speaking to him immediately about his book, and he only managed to half-pay attention since his mind was elsewhere. After a few minutes of that, they moved on to other topics until he finally managed to get things onto the one item he truly wanted to discuss.

Eren.

“Has he been okay at work?” Carla asked, hands wrapped around her mug, the tea within now more tepid than hot. “He hates that place, and I know he does, but I worry about his future. He wasn’t very good at school, so college was out of the question, but he doesn’t seem to have very much drive for anything lately.” She sighed, obviously worried. “I don’t want him to struggle in life. He’s a good boy, just a little hotheaded.”

“I’m not someone you should talk to about hotheadedness,” Levi said, forcing a small smile. He licked his lips then after Carla let out a chuckle. “I wanted to apologize again about the door. I truly didn’t mean to—”

“Oh, that place is old and falling apart.” Carla waved his words away. “If it wasn’t you, it would’ve been someone else, don’t worry about it. Between the broken front door, the rusty-hinged office door, and the auto-locking storage room door, all the doors in that place are out to get someone. I’m just glad nobody got hurt.”

“Me too. I’m still sorry.”

She smiled, called him sweet, and then moved back to talking about Eren. He was more than okay with that, listening to her talk about him and committing it all to memory. Some things she’d mentioned before, but others were new and he made sure to remember them.

He wished he knew why Eren bothered him so much. It was more than attraction, and he knew that, but he’d never felt this level of anxiousness with anyone before. Eren was different, and he had no idea why.

Eventually, they moved away from Eren and Carla started asking him about his books and whether movie or TV deals had been discussed. He replied as honestly as he could without jeopardizing anything in the works, and by the time he finished that topic of discussion, his tea was done.

He was getting ready to leave when the door opened without so much as a knock. Carla sighed audibly, shaking her head, and called out, “Jean, is that you?”

Footsteps padded down the corridor and Levi turned in his seat to find Jean walking into the kitchen. He wondered how many years he’d known Eren to have the ability to just walk in without even knocking.

The grin on Jean’s face faltered when he saw Levi, but he recovered quickly. It didn’t help him, Levi heard his heart pick up in pace. He was afraid of him.

_Who isn’t in this town?_ Levi thought with an internal snort. Carla and Grisha seemed to be the only two who didn’t run for the hills when they saw him coming.

“Sorry mum, just dropping something off for Mikasa from Armin. Be outta your hair in a minute.”

“Mmhm, I’ve heard that before,” she called after him when he turned and raced up the stairs. She laughed, shaking her head. “That boy. You know, he’s become like a second son to me, all the time he spends with Eren. They’re practically inseparable, but they get into trouble a lot when they’re together.”

“He seems fairly mischievous.”

Carla laughed again, and they heard feet pounding down the stairs before Jean called out a farewell and disappeared out of the house. Levi waited until he heard the beat-up truck drive off before standing, not liking Jean being around with Carla and Mikasa alone. He knew it was stupid, but it bothered him a little. He wanted this family safe.

“Thank you for your hospitality, but I should get going. I have some more writing to get done before my next meeting with my editor.”

“Of course, yes! Sorry, I shouldn’t monopolize you.” Carla smiled and led the way to the door, pulling it open for him while telling him to drop by again soon for another chat. He promised he would, thanking her, and started to leave when his eyes caught sight of the tattoo on her inner wrist again.

He paused briefly, hesitating, before deciding to ask about it.

“Sorry if you find this intrusive but, that’s a very interesting tattoo.”

He noticed the shift instantly. She tensed for half a second before she managed a smile, turning her hand so she could look at her wrist, rubbing her opposite thumb against it. It was a simple design, a triangle split into six smaller triangular pieces. Three of the inner pieces were inked black, the other three remaining clear. He’d never seen anything like it before.

“Yes. It is interesting,” she said. The way she said it was a little confusing to Levi.

“I like it. It’s a very inventive design. What does it represent?”

“You know, I have no idea.” She smiled at him, but the corners of her lips seemed to twitch. “I got it right after I met my husband. Of course, he wasn’t my husband back then, but it was very soon after having met him that it came about.” She was still rubbing at it with her thumb, but with another smile and a laugh, she dropped her hands and made Levi promise to return soon.

He did, nodding farewell and exiting the house, hearing the door close behind him but not lock. He hated that the Jaegers didn’t lock their doors. Not many people in town seemed to, but Levi especially hated it with them.

Wandering back to his truck, he climbed in after unlocking the doors and drove away. He forced himself not to slow down when he passed the store, keeping his eyes straight ahead and following the road all the way home. When he pulled into the front lawn of the house and parked the car, he let himself sit there for a few seconds after turning off the engine, then clenched his jaw.

Lifting his wrist, he pulled his sleeve down with his other hand and brought the smudge closer to his face, squinting at it with all the enhanced vision he could muster.

He made out three blobs of dark ink, and what seemed to be three lines surrounding them in the shape of a triangle.

Carla Jaeger’s tattoo was slowly but surely magically appearing on his arm.

* * *

Eren dragged his feet while walking down the street, wanting to whine about his lack of transportation, but knowing he couldn’t. If he did, his parents would just remind him whose fault that was, and he didn’t need to relive almost killing Annie. It was bad enough he’d totalled the truck without having to remember the fear he’d experienced at the sight of her unconscious form beside him.

The streetlights seemed darker on this side of town, but Eren knew it was just psychosomatic because he believed there was a serial killer around. Most of the houses still had lights on inside, and it wasn’t like he was in the middle of nowhere like Rose street was. He was in a more residential part of town, with houses right beside each other. Rose street was more for hermits who wanted land and privacy.

People like Levi, who were serial killers.

Forcing the thought away, Eren ignored how creepy Levi was and started making his way up Jean’s driveway, glancing up at the roof where he heard Connie and Sasha hissing at each other. He raised one hand in greeting to them.

“Hey guys.”

They both shushed him rather vehemently and he just laughed to himself and moved to the front door. He wished he understood their insanity, but it was hard to think about when he considered he and Jean were also fairly unusual in their own rights. Connie and Sasha liked hanging out on Jean’s roof, who was he to tell them to leave? Besides, he knew why they did it. Mr. Springer had a strict internet policy, and for someone like Connie who thought he was a hacker, that had to kill him. Jean’s neighbour was an old lady who didn’t even understand the internet, but she had a connection to it anyway. An unlocked connection, meaning there was no password required. Eren and Jean tended to use her connection when they downloaded porn, since it was accessible from his house, so he was fairly certain that was why Connie and Sasha hung out there. It would be easier to explain to the police why they were hanging out on a friend’s roof as opposed to if they hung out on the old lady’s roof.

Still, they could probably steal her internet from inside Jean’s house, but he didn’t question them about it. They wanted to break their necks on the roof, that was their problem.

Reaching the front door, he pushed it open and let himself in, kicking off his shoes in the front hall before shutting it. Heading up the stairs, he called hello to Mrs. Kirschstein before disappearing into Jean’s room.

He was swearing and muttering darkly at his television, body twisted weirdly while his thumbs tapped away at the controller, evidently attempting to beat whatever game he was currently playing. Based on his health bar, Eren was fairly certain he wasn’t going to succeed, but he had the decency not to say so. He just watched silently, sitting on Jean’s bed while the other sat in a bean bag in front of his television, jabbing angrily at the buttons on the controller. After about three minutes, he died. He threw his controller down angrily, luckily having it land on another one of the bean bags and thus not damaging it in the slightest.

“Frustrated?”

“Screw you, Jaeger.”

“No thanks, you’re not my type.”

Jean gave him an annoyed look at that and Eren just grinned and waggled his eyebrows. Jean snorted, shaking his head and leaning forward to eject the game he was playing.

Neither of them said a word while he turned off the console, dug through his video games and pulled out _MarioKart_. Getting the WiiU set up, he tossed a controller to Eren and the two of them got comfortable, choosing their characters and picking a course at random.

“You should just accept the fact that you suck at this game and you’re never gonna beat me. Why do you insist on torturing yourself?” Jean asked, picking Wario while Eren chose Yoshi.

“Shut up and start the damn level.”

Jean complied, beginning the level and the two of them watched the countdown. Eren spun out of control immediately, and he scowled at the screen angrily, frustrated that this stupid game was so hard. How was it that he could manage to tie against Jean while playing a game like _Halo_ , but shove him in a go-cart and he couldn’t manage to get through one lap without falling off something, exploding or being smooshed by a giant chain-chomp.

The two of them played for close to an hour, and in that hour, Jean managed to cream him every single round. It was almost embarrassing at this point, but Eren was determined to win a round eventually.

Throwing the controller down once he decided it was time to go, he muttered that Jean was somehow a cheater and then waved goodbye before leaving. He heard Jean calling him back, insisting he had to talk to him about something but Eren told him to text him later and left the house, calling goodbye to Mrs. Kirschstein.

When he wandered down the porch steps, hands shoved in his pockets, he headed back for his house and had made it to the bottom of the driveway before noticing the truck across the street three houses down. He frowned when he realized it was familiar, recognizing it as Levi’s, and he looked around as if to determine which house he would be at. Presumably the house he was parked in front of, but that house belonged to Marlowe’s family and they weren’t exactly the most hospitable people. He doubted Levi was in there.

Turning to see if Connie and Sasha were still there, he waved to get their attention.

Connie made wild gestures at him to stop drawing attention to them, which was stupid because it wasn’t like they were invisible up there. He did something Eren couldn’t see, then a moment later his phone began to ring. When he pulled it out, Connie’s name flashed back at him.

He answered.

_“Are you trying to get us arrested?!”_

“Relax, you’re fine.” Eren rolled his eyes. They were way too high-strung for people who probably couldn’t even figure out how to turn the damn laptops _on_. “You see that truck over there?” Eren turned and pointed at it before looking back up at Connie.

_“What about it?”_

“You see the guy who was in it?”

_“Been a little busy, so no. Why, what’s it to you?”_

Eren turned to look over at the truck, feeling uneasy with its presence, but deciding not to comment on it. “Forget it, it’s all good. Don’t break your necks climbing down from there, okay?”

_“Never do.”_  Connie hung up.

Eren pushed his phone back into his pocket and turned to walk back down the street.

* * *

Jean bit absently at his thumbnail while staring at his computer screen, _My Chemical Romance_ blaring in his ears and his third coffee of the day growing cold at his elbow. His left leg jerked up and down rapidly, likely an effect of the coffee moreso than nerves, but also maybe partly nerves.

His eyes scanned the words on the screen in front of him before he switched tabs and began typing something in the search engine. Once he was done, he returned his thumbnail to between his teeth once more, reading more slowly so his brain could actually absorb and process the words he was seeing.

It was difficult to determine what he was looking at, or for, because he didn’t know what Levi’s real name was. Levi Ackerman could’ve been a pseudonym, and he’d found many stories online about Levis and their broken families. Not that he knew Levi’s was broken, but if he was looking for connections to Mikasa, that was what he was looking for.

One family with a child named Levi had had him forcibly removed from their care when it became clear there was child abuse involved. Levi seemed damaged enough for that to be possible, but he was also fairly social and polite, so Jean wasn’t sure.

Another Levi had been kidnapped at the age of four and by the time he was found eight years later, his father had gone insane and murdered his wife in a fit of grief over their lost child before taking his own life.

Another still had had a mother who’d gone on a crazy murder spree and killed a couple of people before being sentenced to jail. It said she’d died in prison, but hadn’t elaborated as to whether or not it had been capital punishment.

Not a happy life out in the world for children named Levi.

And on top of that, none of those Levi’s parents had the last name Ackerman.

Jean was still browsing an article about another Levi when a hand fell onto his shoulder and he jumped so violently that he banged the table with his knees and overturned his coffee. Thankfully it was in a to-go container today, meaning the lid had been on and he’d caught it before it completely tipped over, but a few drops of dark liquid had landed on his laptop. He used the bottom of his shirt to wipe it off while a foreign hand yanked his headphones down, music clearly audible to the entirety of Hannes’ little coffee shop.

“If you’re gonna be doing research like that, you _might_  not want to do it with your back to the door and your screen visible to every single person who walks in,” Armin said, taking a seat beside him in the empty chair available.

“Why? No harm done,” Jean insisted, still wiping away at his keyboard. “Did you know that forty percent of the world’s coffee is produced by Brazil?”

“Did your good friend the internet tell you that?” Armin asked with a sigh. “Did you even hear what I said?”

“Not to have my back to the door so that little gremlins with blond hair can’t sneak up on me and make me spill coffee all over my laptop?”

“More like...” Armin took Jean’s chin between his fingers and forced him to turn his head towards the cash register.

Where Levi was standing.

Ordering a drink.

Jean slapped his laptop shut hastily and looked around, as if worried his freaky friends would magically appear right beside him. He leaned closer to Armin.

“How long has he been here? Did he see anything?”

Armin just shrugged, glancing over at Levi again while the older man paid and took a takeaway cup from the barista. There was a tag sticking out the side, suggesting it was tea.

He turned to head towards the exit, which meant having to pass by Jean. The man in question sank lower in his seat, as if hoping to go unnoticed. A moot point, since trying to disappear from sight essentially made him more obvious than ever.

Levi stopped behind him and Armin.

“If you’re curious about something, I recommend searching the library archives. They’re a lot more reliable than the internet. The internet lies.” He started to leave, then paused and turned back to them. “By the way, it’s Columbia _and_  Brazil combined, not just Brazil. If you’re gonna quote the internet, at least double-check what you’re quoting.”

Levi turned and left the coffee shop.

Jean let out a slow breath he hadn’t even known he’d been holding. “That guy gives me the creeps.”

“He gives everyone the creeps,” Armin commented. “Except Eren, apparently. He told me he thinks he’s hot.”

“Figures Eren would find serial killers hot,” Jean muttered, turning in his seat as subtly as possible and watching Levi do something behind the wheel of his truck. It looked like he was texting, sitting out in the parking lot like a weirdo. Then, he started his truck and pulled out, making Jean frown when he saw which direction he was heading in.

“Is he working right now?” he asked, a thought occurring to him. He still had to talk to Eren about something he’d found out and hadn’t gotten around to the night before. _MarioKart_  had distracted him and he hadn’t wanted to put anything in text.

“I think so, why?” Armin asked.

Jean hastily stood and began packing away his things. “Throw my coffee out for me, will you? I’ll catch you later.”

“Okay?” Armin asked, confused. Jean didn’t explain, he just hurried to put everything back in his laptop bag, zipped it shut, then raced out of the coffee shop to his truck.

* * *

Eren had begun reading Levi’s books. For research, of course. When he wasn’t reading, he was looking into his history and background online. To help out Mikasa, of course. Not to confirm that he wasn’t a serial killer.

His books were really well written, if he was honest. He hated to admit it, but Levi was talented, and he really felt in tune with the main character. He’d decided to read the half-Vampire FBI series because Jean had started raving about how good it was, and even his mother had a copy of the first book in the living room. He was not disappointed at all, and he understood what Jean meant about the one scene where the Vampire is watching his love interest jerk off in the bath. It was extremely well described and Eren was completely turned on by it.

There was an even better scene closer to the end of the second book where the love interest was being fucked and the Vampire was jerking off himself while watching. That one had made Eren incredibly uncomfortable because he’d really wanted to reach into his own pants, but had somehow managed to resist.

Three books in and he hadn’t found anything that suggested Levi was a serial killer. Not that he’d really thought he would, but it gave him an excuse to read the books without admitting he’d wanted to.

He was still picking away at the third book on his—thankfully—day off when Jean burst into his room, much like he always did.

“Eren! Eren, Eren, Eren!”

“What?” he demanded, somewhat irately. He was annoyed at being interrupted because the book was getting really good. It was amazing that it was the _third_  book and the two had only _just_  begun speaking to one another! He was interested to see where their relationship went, if anywhere.

“Okay, I meant to talk to you about this yesterday, but you know how I get with video games so my brain was a little spacey, but I’ve been researching Levi and then the attack the other night,” Jean said, speaking so quickly he was almost stumbling over his own words while pulling his laptop out of its bag, “and I found out something really interesting!” He opened the computer while he spoke, typed in his password, and then flipped it around to show Eren. It was open on a newspaper article, complete with picture. It showed the aftermath of the savage attack with ambulances and police cruisers in the background.

“What am I looking at?” Eren asked slowly.

“What do you _mean_  what are you looking at?! Look!” He fell down beside Eren, still holding his laptop, and then used his finger to control the mouse so he could blow up a corner of the image. In it, Eren saw a blue truck with shiny rims and his heart seemed to stutter to a halt in his chest.

“That’s—”

“Levi’s! It’s Levi’s fucking truck, Eren! He was _there_!”

Eren shifted uncomfortably on the bed. So Levi had been there, that wasn’t really weird, was it? A number of people had been there. He was sure there was a logical explanation for—

“He’s at work, right?”

“Huh?” Eren asked, looking at Jean.

“Levi! He’s at work, right? Like, he’s not home? I saw him stop at the coffee shop a while ago.”

That explained why Jean was talking a mile a minute.

“He was getting some tea, and Armin says he thinks he’s working today.”

Eren didn’t think he liked where this was going, but he nodded all the same.

“So that means his place is empty, right?”

As expected, he didn’t like where this was going. “We’re not breaking into his house, Jean.”

“Why not?! I need to check out that cage, dude! It’s fucking _weird_ , okay!”

“Connie’s dad said—”

“Right, because a kidnapper/serial killer is going to tell the person he commissioned the cage from what it’s for.” He rolled his eyes. “Eren, this is serious! You know he came here the other day, right?”

Eren straightened at that, mind screeching to a halt. “What do you mean?”

“He was here! I came by to drop something off for Mikasa from Armin and your mom and Levi were having fucking _tea_  in the kitchen! Mikasa said he’d been there for almost an hour! Apparently he drops by every now and then for a chat!”

It was one thing when Levi showed up unannounced at the store, that was normal, but his house? And when his mother and sister were _alone_? Without his father or himself around? That was... No. Fucking _no_. No one was going to hurt his family!

“Let’s go.”

He and Jean hurried out of the house, Eren calling to his mother that he’d be back in time for dinner before disappearing out the front door. They drove past the store to make sure Levi hadn’t called in sick, and when they passed, they could see him writing behind the till, back to the window.

“If he’s there now, he’s probably on one of the shorter shifts. Means he’ll be out in about three hours,” Eren said while they zoomed away. “We shouldn’t linger though, let’s aim to be out of his place in one.”

“Depends on what we find, because if there’s a dead body in his house, I’ll be outta there much faster than that.”

Eren sure as hell _hoped_  there wasn’t a dead body in there.

When they reached the house at the top of the hill, Jean parked his car as close to the trees as he could, similar to where he’d parked the first time they’d come up to see Levi. It was hidden from anyone coming up the hill, and the shadows of the trees combined with the grey sky from threatening rain made it shrouded in darkness so that it was less likely to be spotted from the house, too.

Climbing out, Eren felt all the hairs on his body rise just looking at the house. He knew it was nerves, but he still hated the feeling. He rubbed at his arms while the two of them jogged for the front of the house, taking the stairs to the porch two at a time. When they reached the door, Jean tried it and cursed.

“Locked.”

“Makes sense, he’s from the city,” Eren commented, looking around. He descended the stairs and walked around the porch, moving to the side of the house while looking up. “Hey Jean,” he called.

When his friend joined him, he motioned the second level where a window had been left open just a crack. Jean looked around then hit Eren in the chest with the back of his hand before motioning the porch again.

“If we climb up the railing, we can get onto the lower roof.”

“We better not fall and kill ourselves,” Eren muttered, but he followed him anyway. He considered that if morons like Connie and Sasha could do it, they’d probably manage, too.

Jean climbed up onto the railing first, hoisting himself up with some difficulty. Eren managed more easily, his upper body strength having improved from years of hauling boxes at work. They made their way carefully across the roof to the window, Jean sliding it open and hopping into the room. Eren followed him and slid the window shut again, just in case Levi happened to come home and noticed the window looked different.

When he looked around the room, he found it to be pretty plain. A bed, a nightstand, and a dresser. The bed had no sheets or pillows, and the nightstand looked new and unused.

“Guest room?” he guessed.

“Probably.” Jean hit him lightly in the chest again. “Come on, let’s check out his room.”

They walked through the bedroom and out into the corridor, wandering to the end where the master bedroom was. It didn’t look much different from the other room, except this bed had covers. It was made with almost military-like precision, each corner tucked in and the entire surface smooth and flat. There were some wires leading from a plug behind the nightstand, looking like an Iphone charger, and a laptop was sitting on the nightstand on the other side of the bed.

There also appeared to be a patched up hole in the drywall beside the bed, and the floor by the nightstand seemed uneven, as if it had recently been fixed and sanded.

“He has two laptops?” Jean asked, moving around the bed and opening it while Eren bent down to check the floor. “Isn’t that weird?”

“Is it?” Eren asked with a shrug and stood again. “He’s a writer. Maybe one is for leaving the house and one is _for_  the house? I mean, it’s never a safe bet taking a laptop out all the time, something could happen to it. If he lost his work, that’s his livelihood gone.”

“I guess.” Jean shut it once more, since it had opened on a screen requesting a password. He looked around the room. “This place is too clean. Like... it smells like disinfectant in here.”

“Maybe he’s a clean person?” Eren offered with a shrug. “Come on, let’s check out the rest of the house.”

They wandered down to the first floor but found nothing suspicious. A moderately stocked kitchen, an unused dining room—made obvious by the lack of table—and a really nice living room with a sweet surround-sound system that Jean had spent much too long drooling over. By the time he’d dragged him away from it, Eren was worried their hour was up and they should be leaving.

Before that though, they had to check out the basement. They made it to the door, but it was obvious neither of them wanted to open it. Eren ended up being the one to actually do it, pulling it open. It creaked ominously, like a bad horror movie, and the steps leading downstairs were dark. He reached out and flipped the light switch, illuminating the area below.

Silence.

“You know, this was your idea, you should go first,” Eren said, moving behind Jean and giving him a shove.

“What? No! You’re the one who doesn’t believe me, _you_  go first!” Jean shoved at Eren to get him back in front of himself.

The two of them had a mini fight at the top of the stairs until Jean shoved Eren a _little_  too hard and the brunet almost fell down the stairs backwards. He managed to catch himself at the last second, Jean also having reached out and catching the front of his shirt, but then they stayed motionless like this for a number of seconds. When no sounds came from below, and the clock continuing to tick, Eren straightened and shoved Jean backwards angrily, then turned and squared his shoulders before marching down the stairs.

Jean followed behind him, catching up quickly and grabbing the back of Eren’s shirt, clinging to him like a terrified little child. Eren ignored the way he was being choked, feeling like that was the only thing stopping his heart from beating right out of his mouth considering he felt like it was somewhere up in his throat.

They reached the bottom of the stairs, and looked around, Eren’s heart thumping double-time when his eyes caught sight of the cage, but it was empty. No bodies, no kidnapped soul, no blood. Nothing.

“Huh. Well, that was anti-climactic,” Jean said, finally letting Eren’s shirt go. “And you were scared.” He scoffed and crossed his arms, trying to act as if he hadn’t been clinging to Eren’s shirt mere moment before.

“Yeah, you were the picture of calm,” Eren said dryly, rolling his eyes and moving towards the cage. He walked up to it, looking it over and frowning. It wasn’t a full cage, since the floor and ceiling were still uncovered. The metal bars themselves were just against the back wall, either side of that, and then across the front, effectively splitting the basement into two. Eren didn’t know why the walls had to have the bars as well, given it would’ve probably been sufficient to have the one partition between the two halves of the basement, but he didn’t dwell on it. The floor was the foundation, so it looked like it was made of concrete, and the ceiling was unfinished and showing off the beams and supports for the upper level.

He found the door that opened up into the cage and frowned. It had an easy latch, the type that slid back and forth into place with a small knob to move it more easily. He stared at it for a few seconds, then pulled open the small gate, stepping into the cage. Once inside, he shut the door, reached through the bars and locked it. He tested the door, finding it to be solid and unmoving.

“What are you doing?!” Jean demanded, rushing over to him. He’d been looking through the items on the other side of the floor. “Get out of there, are you crazy?!”

“I think Mr. Springer was telling the truth,” Eren insisted. “I honestly think Levi bought this cage for his next book. I mean, there’s a plug outlet over there, and it’s a pretty shitty cage to kidnap someone in.” He emphasized his point by reaching through the bars, unlocking the gate, and stepping out. “Anyone could escape.”

“Not if he cut off their fingers,” Jean hissed.

“First off, gross,” Eren insisted, giving Jean a look of disgust. “Second, you need to let this go. You’re getting obsessed with him being a killer and, to be honest, it’s starting to get weird. You’re making _me_  think he’s a killer, and he hasn’t shown any signs of wanting to hurt anyone, and you know how annoying I can get, so if he was going to murder someone, I’d be at the top of his list. A lot of people were at that party. He bought this cage because of his next book. He’s actually a normal person other than being pissed about lateness.” He moved past Jean and headed for the stairs. “Let it go.”

“He had tea with your mother!” Jean insisted, chasing after him.

“So what? Maybe he genuinely _did_  want to have a chat with her! He worked early once because she was alone, maybe he’s just a nice guy who doesn’t like people snooping around on his property. He’s a writer, he’s probably worried someone’s going to steal his work.”

They’d reached the first floor by now and were heading for the second level, planning on exiting the same way they’d entered.

“You’re just saying that because you think he’s hot!”

“I’d purposefully endanger my family because I think he’s hot?” Eren asked dryly, turning to give him a look. “Because it’s not like I’ve gotten told off in the past for beating on people making trouble for Mikasa. Obviously I give zero shits about my family.”

Jean was sputtering excuses behind him, clearly trying to find a reason that Eren wasn’t taking this seriously, but by the time they were on the roof and trying to climb back down, he’d finally shut his mouth and was just sulking instead, clearly out of arguments.

They hurried back to the truck and left the house far behind them, still not speaking to one another. Eren just stared out the window, and when they passed the store, he found Levi still sitting exactly where he’d been when they’d passed by earlier. They’d ended up being in the house for just over an hour, so there hadn’t been any risk of being caught, but Eren was still glad they’d left.

Jean stopped the car at the bottom of the driveway and Eren climbed out. Before closing the door though, he hesitated and rubbed his hand along the opening.

“I appreciate that you’re worried about my family, Jean,” he said quietly. “But this thing with Levi... We could ruin a man’s life by falsely accusing him.”

“He was _at_ the party.”

“I know, and I’ll mention it when I see him next, but for now he’s been perfectly normal, if not a little creepy. He’s just... intense.”

Jean snorted, suggesting that was an understatement. Eren said nothing else, pressed his lips together, then shut the door. He wandered up the driveway to his front door and entered the house, calling to his mother that he was back before heading for the second floor.

He went right back to reading his book, trying to get his mind off the guilt he felt over breaking and entering. He’d hate it if someone was in _his_ room without his knowledge, and he and Jean had just been wandering around Levi’s house for an hour. It felt rude—and was definitely illegal. Why had he let Jean talk him into that?!

Eren was still angsting about it, struggling to focus on reading, when someone rang the bell. Disinterested, he just squinted at his book, trying to get the words to make sense in his brain when he heard his mother’s voice calling out to him.

“What?”

“You have a visitor.”

It wasn’t Jean or Armin, he knew that for sure. He doubted it was Annie, since she’d have come in and called out to see if anyone was home. Jean tended to let himself in like he lived there, which Eren also did at his house, and Armin usually announced himself much like Annie when he came over.

Either way, he knew it wasn’t one of his friends so he saved the page in his book and stood, trudging towards his door and descending the stairs. He was rounding the bend to go down the last few to the first floor when he looked up and locked eyes with the last person he’d expected to see.

“Levi,” he said slowly, remaining frozen at the bend in the stairs. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t be rude,” Carla insisted, looking horrified at his words. She quickly turned back to Levi. “Would you like some tea?”

The words flashed him back to Jean’s earlier conversation about how Levi and his mother had had tea. It made his stomach twist uncomfortably.

“No thank you, I’m not staying today. I just need a quick word with your son.”

“Of course.” Carla smiled and motioned Eren to come down the last few steps. He obeyed, his legs feeling like lead, and he stopped beside her. “Be nice,” she whispered, kissing his temple and then moving back to the kitchen.

Eren crossed his arms defensively, looking anywhere but at Levi.

“What’s up?”

His answer was the other man pulling open the front door and motioning him outside. Eren hesitated, then uncrossed his arms and exited the house, Levi following behind him and shutting the front door. They stood together on the porch, Eren shifting his weight uncomfortably while feeling Levi’s gaze on him.

“Do you make it a habit to break into people’s houses?”

Those words sent an electric shock down Eren’s spine and he whipped his head in Levi’s direction. Their eyes met, and the sick feeling of fear was sliding up his throat again. There was no way Levi could know for certain that Eren had been the one to break into his house. Hell, he didn’t even know how Levi _knew_  someone had broken into his house!

“What are you—”

Levi took a step forward, closing the distance. It was amazing how someone so much shorter than him could still make Eren feel like he was two inches tall.

“You and your friend Jean broke into my house,” he said quietly, voice dark and threatening. “Do it again, and I’ll have you arrested.”

A cold sweat broke out across Eren’s forehead, and he could feel his hands beginning to dampen, as well. He clenched them into fists and licked his lips. “I don’t—”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Jaeger,” Levi snapped, voice still low, as if not wanting to alert his mother of their conversation. “Do it again, and I’ll have you arrested. What I do in the privacy of my own home is _none_  of your business.” Levi turned then and managed to stomp silently down the porch steps. He’d made it to his truck before speaking again, eyes locked on Eren. “If you liked being in that cage so much, you’ll _love_  prison.”

He climbed into the truck, slammed the door, and peeled out of Eren’s driveway.

The brunet could feel sweat sticking his shirt to his back and he let out a slow breath, slumping against the side of the house and rubbing at his face. He _knew_  he shouldn’t have let Jean talk him into it! And he would be willing to bet _anything_  that Jean hadn’t gotten the same visit. Levi seemed pissed about _him_  being in his house moreso than having Jean in there.

And... how the fuck had Levi known Eren had been the one to enter his cage _anyway_?

“Who the fuck _is_  this guy?” he whispered to no one, shaking his head and returning inside.

He was never listening to Jean ever again. 


	6. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was either too long or too short so I went with too long...
> 
> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

Levi sat staring at his screen, hands folded together and pressed against his lips. He couldn’t get the scene to work the way he wanted it to, and it was beginning to frustrate him. He’d re-written it at least five times, but he didn’t know how to make it work in a believable fashion.

In his experience, people didn’t tend to fall in love with a person who terrified them. Maybe that was why he was struggling so much, because it seemed impossible, and yet was something that he felt like he wanted.

Pushing away from his desk angrily, chair scraping loudly against the floor, he turned and stalked out of the study and down the stairs. He needed tea, tea always helped him focus. And he was severely lacking in focus right now.

He usually wrote in his room, sitting up in bed, but with Eren fucking wandering around his house earlier that day, it was making it very difficult for him to focus in there. Which wasn’t helped by him heading for the kitchen and passing the basement door.

Pausing for half a second, he forced himself to keep walking, heading into the kitchen and refilling the kettle. Setting it back on its base, he started it, then leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms, scowling at the ground.

It wasn’t even like Eren was all that attractive!

Okay, he was. He was seriously good looking. But Levi had been around many good looking people in his life and had never felt this level of possessiveness. He thought Erwin was attractive. Mike was definitely attractive. Hell, even that stupid horse friend of Eren’s was attractive. Eren wasn’t special. He wasn’t unique.

And yet every time Levi closed his eyes for sleep, Eren was the one who ended up being fucked against the closest available hard surface. Just once Levi would like to be able to go to sleep without imagining any number of things he could do to Eren.

He was moving before even being conscious of doing so, heading towards the basement door. He hesitated for only a moment before pulling it open and stalking down the stairs, moving closer to the cage. He made sure to keep enough distance between himself and the bars, then closed his eyes and inhaled. It still smelled like Eren—and Jean, but he ignored that.

Levi had to wonder what Eren had been thinking when he’d walked down those steps. Why had he wandered to the cage and decided to enter it? Why had he thought that was a good idea? If Levi had caught him down here, he probably wouldn’t have let him leave.

A nice thought, having Eren all to himself, but even _he_  acknowledged how creepy that was. His book was definitely beginning to fuck with him if he thought it was okay to imagine trapping Eren down here.

Besides, he wouldn’t be able to keep him there indefinitely.

“I’m not going to keep him here at all,” he growled to himself, opening his eyes and glaring angrily at the cage, as if it were its fault Eren’s scent was everywhere.

Turning to head back up the stairs, he reached out to slam the door once he’d exited the basement and paused, staring down at his wrist. He brought it closer to his face, scowling a little at the mark there. It had steadily been growing darker over the past few days, making it clearer than ever that it was identical to Carla Jaeger’s.

It would switch up the shades every now and then, sometimes going so light he could hardly see more than a smudge, and other times having it be so dark it looked like a real tattoo. The last few hours, it had been dark, and remained that way.

He didn’t know what it meant, didn’t even know what it _was_. A part of him felt like he should tell Erwin, in case it turned out to be bad, but he didn’t want to talk to him right now. He couldn’t tell him everything, so mentioning this would just open the door for him to ask about everything else.

Filling a mug with water, he dropped a tea bag in it and then headed back upstairs, closing his word document and opening Google Chrome instead, beginning to run searches on tattoos. It was difficult to search when he didn’t even really know what he was looking for, but he would figure this out without involving Erwin.

He would figure this out before anything bad happened to that family.

* * *

Eren rubbed at his face while wandering slowly down the stairs, trying to wake himself up a bit more for an entire day of working with Levi. Not only was it hard to work with him considering the whole freaky eyes thing, but now he had to add in the fact that he broke into his house and Levi knew it.

On top of that, he felt like he might be developing a fanboy crush on Levi, because he’d finished all the books in the FBI series, and even read two of the author’s other stand-alone works. He kind of wanted to sit behind Levi and read over his shoulder now.

Not that he would, because that would involve being in his general vicinity and Eren couldn’t be in his general vicinity because that would mean _being in his general vicinity_. He wondered if there was a word for this condition. Being completely obsessed with someone for their talent but being scared of them as a person.

Reading the books, Eren could forget how much of a creepy asshole Levi was, but then he’d see him at work and that would just all go down the drain. He really didn’t want to be stuck with Levi all damn day, but he didn’t have much of a choice.

Walking into the kitchen to grab himself some coffee before leaving, he paused when his parents both turned to him and immediately stopped speaking. Looking back and forth between them, he quickly ran through his head what he’d done recently that would have them talk about him behind his back. He began sweating profusely when he thought about Levi telling them what he and Jean had done, but they didn’t look mad and he didn’t see police.

“Eren,” his mother said with a smile. “Coffee?”

“Yeah,” he said slowly, eyes shifting back and forth between his parents. “Thanks.”

His mother grabbed a thermos and began filling it with coffee. Once she was done, she held it out to him. He took it, still eying them, and then motioned behind himself.

“Right. Well, I should—go. I’ll be late if I don’t.”

He’d turned to exit the kitchen and had taken two steps when his father called his name. He looked back at them and saw his parents share a look. Something felt really wrong and he didn’t know that he was interested in finding out what it was.

“Here, take the truck.” His father tossed him a set of keys and he managed to catch them before they fell. He frowned at his parents, looking down at the keys. They didn’t look like any of the ones for any of the other vehicles they had. And on top of that...

“We don’t have a truck.”

“Don’t we?” His father offered him a smile, taking a sip of his own coffee.

It took almost five full seconds for the words to click and Eren turned instantly and raced for the door. He wrenched it open and hurried out onto the porch, jumping down the steps and looking out at the driveway.

All three of his family member’s cars were parked where they usually were. His mother’s in the garage, and his father and Mikasa’s on the driveway. Out on the road, parallel to their front lawn, sat a brand new 2017 Dodge Ram, dark blue with amazing looking tires.

“No way... No _fucking_  way!” He laughed and ran for the truck, using the key fob to unlock it and climbing in. The interior smelled like new leather, the seats smooth under his hand when he used one of them to help him up into the cab. The inside was huge with a built-in GPS, seat-warmers, On-Star and a partition big enough to fit a large pizza.

His parents had approached while he’d been busy playing with the dials, his father wrapping his arm around Carla’s shoulders.

“Your mother and I have been talking and, well, we acknowledge that you’ve been working really hard at the store lately. You haven’t had time to hang out with your friends, something further hindered by your lack of transportation. So we thought a new truck might help with part of that while we look for another body to help manage the store.”

“Try not to wreck this one, okay?” Carla said teasingly, but Eren could tell she also meant it seriously. Considering he _had_  trashed the last one, it made sense she’d want to ensure this one stayed safe.

“Thank you!” Eren jumped out of the truck and wrapped his parents in a hug. “This is so awesome! Thank you!”

“Well, we knew you were saving for the motorcycle, which I still don’t approve of, but you’ve earned this.” Carla patted his cheek, her sleeve sliding up slightly to expose a corner of her tattoo. “Try to stay out of trouble, okay?”

“I will! Thank you! This is so awesome!” He laughed again, turning back to the truck. “Shit, I mean, you didn’t have to get me a brand new one!”

“Your mother’s idea,” Grisha said, rubbing at his wife’s arm, his own still wrapped around her shoulders. “Figures you’ll take better care of it.”

“I will, I totally will! Thank you!” He checked the time on his phone and made a face. “I should go. Thomas is gonna be chomping at the bit to leave and Levi’s probably already there.” _Asskisser that he is,_  he thought to himself.

“Drive safe!” his mother insisted while he got back behind the wheel and slammed the door. He grinned like an idiot, checking for the ignition and rather pleased to see it was one of the engine-start buttons. He pressed it, the car roaring to life—very quietly, so probably not much of a roar—and he shifted it into drive.

He spent more time fiddling with the various dials and testing out certain buttons in the truck than he did actually paying attention to where he was going. He almost drove right past the store but managed to catch himself and he backed up so he could turn into the lot. Once parked, he started to exit when his eyes caught sight of Levi behind the till, back to the window.

His happy mood instantly vanished. He didn’t want to go in there and spend the whole day with someone who was pissed at him and scary and could blackmail him for all eternity. Why was he already there _anyway_? It wasn’t even time for his shift yet! Eren himself still had ten minutes, which meant Levi did, as well. So why was the guy always so damn eager to start early?

Letting out a slow sigh, Eren knew he couldn’t avoid this. It was still early in the day, if he went in and apologized now, there was less of a chance of Levi exploding in front of customers. He just had to get Thomas out of the store before they had their yelling match.

Climbing out of his brand new car, he slammed the door then ran his fingers along the vehicle while moving past it. Walking the few steps to the store, he held his breath before rushing inside, avoiding looking at Levi and making a bee-line for the office. His almost violent entrance into the back made Thomas jump from where he sat counting the till.

“Jesus, Eren!” The other man punched him when he came into range. “What the hell!”

“Sorry,” Eren muttered, placing his thermos on the table, putting his bag down and beginning to change quickly. “Levi been here long?”

“Nah, maybe two minutes. He said he’d start right away so I could count up and finish up stuff before you got here.” He turned to Eren while the brunet changed his shirt. “He’s kind of weird, but pretty nice. Little curious though.”

Eren paused, eying Thomas. “Curious how?”

“He asks about you a lot.”

“He does?” Eren felt his gut twist uncomfortably. “Like what? What does he ask about?”

“Like, regular stuff. How long you’ve lived here, what you like to do in your free time, where you went to school.” Thomas shrugged and crossed his arms, leaning back in his seat. Clearly he didn’t find that as terrifying as Eren did. “I don’t know, I think he likes you.”

“He does _not_  like me,” Eren said, an almost hysterical laugh escaping him. “He wants me to die in a ditch somewhere.”

“That’s not the impression I get.” Thomas shrugged again then turned back to the till, continuing to count.

The two of them discussed Thomas’ eventual move to Stohess while he finished up his work and then Eren locked everything away in the safe while the blond got changed. They exited the office together, Thomas patting Eren lightly on the back before disappearing out of the store with a wave to Levi.

When the door closed, silence fell. Levi was still behind the till and Eren was standing a few paces in front of the counter, eyes on the door. He could feel the older man’s eyes burning a hole into the side of his skull and he cleared his throat uncomfortably.

The last thing he wanted to do right now was talk to Levi, especially after finding out he’d been asking about him. It made his hand itch to pull out his phone and ask Reiner if he did the same thing with him.

Why did Levi need to know things about him anyway? And if he was curious, why not just ask?

Eren ignored the fact that he’d broken into Levi’s house because he didn’t want to ask questions, but in his defence, Levi wasn’t exactly the easiest person to talk to.

“Well?”

Eren’s gaze shifted to Levi, seeing him sitting there with his arms crossed, looking expectant. He was _waiting_  for an apology, and the knowledge of that made Eren more determined _not_  to apologize to him.

“Well what?” Eren asked stubbornly, glancing away from him and shoving in hands in his pockets. “Don’t expect me to send you home early because you showed up early. If you come outside your scheduled hours, that’s your problem.”

Silence. Eren’s eyes shifted to look at his truck through the store window, trying to focus on something positive instead of Levi, who gave him the heebie jeebies. It was funny though, because he was positive if Levi acted less _creepy_  and _weird_ , Eren probably wouldn’t mind hanging out with him.

But he _was_  creepy and weird, so Eren didn’t want to be around him even at work. His mind entertained the serial killer idea once more but he shrugged it off. Levi was just weird, but he wasn’t a murderer.

He tensed when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, thinking Levi was about to start something, but all he’d done was uncross his arms so he could resume typing, the quiet tap-tap of his fingers against the keys filling the store.

Figuring he could go find something to do in the storage room, despite having been back there so often he pretty much knew the entire inventory off-hand, he started to turn to do just that when he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

There was something on Levi’s wrist, and while normally he wouldn’t think twice about it, he had lived with his mother his entire life. He knew what her tattoo looked like from every angle.

_Every_  angle.

“What’s that?” Eren demanded, forgetting to be afraid of Levi and stalking forward.

“What?” Levi asked, sounding annoyed.

“That! What is that?!” Without fully meaning to, Eren reached out and grabbed Levi’s hand, yanking it forward and turning it so he could look at the tattoo on the inside of his left wrist.

He felt his heart beginning to pick up in pace at the sight of it.

It was the same. Exactly the same. A large triangle, divided into six smaller triangles within, three of the six inked in. His mother had the exact same one.

“Why did you get this?” he demanded, feeling something rising in his throat. He couldn’t identify what the feeling was, but he felt like it was probably terror.

Levi pulled his hand back roughly, glaring at Eren as if offended he’d touched him. “I thought it was cool.”

“So you just went out and got it? The same tattoo as my _mother_? In the same place?!” Eren didn’t realize he was shouting until after he’d already started to.

“What does it matter to you?” Levi snapped, eyes narrowing. Eren felt a different kind of fear rising inside him, gaze locked on Levi’s, and he struggled to keep his breathing under control. He hated how Levi could do that, give him a look that made all the air rush out of his lungs and his legs begin to shake.

“Why did you get that?” Eren asked again, forcing the words out past his fear.

“I told you, I thought it was cool. I asked your mom about it, because I liked it. It’s not a big deal.”

But it _was_  a big deal! It was a _huge_  fucking deal!

Eren stood there staring at Levi, unable to look away, feeling his fight or flight instinct kicking in. He wanted to run, he did. He wanted to turn and bolt. But his gaze was caught by Levi’s intense blue eyes and he couldn’t look away.

He was frozen in place, trapped in a cycle of fear, until something seemed to soften in Levi’s features and he looked away. The second the eye contact broke, Eren felt like he could breathe again and he stumbled back a step before turning and racing for the office.

Slamming through the door, he shut it behind him and locked it, hands shaking. His heart was pounding painfully against his ribs and he sank to the floor, pressing his back to the door and covering his eyes with his palms.

“Calm down. Calm down,” he whispered to himself. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay. Just calm down.”

He wished it were that easy. He wished he could just talk himself into calming down.

Eren let out a shout when his phone buzzed against his leg and he hastily fished it out of his pocket, feeling one percent better at the name flashing back at him.

“Mikasa,” he said, answering the phone.

_“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”_

Eren closed his eyes, struggling to get his breathing back under control, pressing the back of his head against the door.

“How do you always do that?”

_“Do what?”_

“Call me when I need you the most.”

_“It’s a sixth sense,”_  she teased.

Eren just grunted, still trying to get his breathing under control.

For as long as he could remember, when something went wrong, Mikasa was always there. She always knew. He didn’t know how, but she knew. When he’d crashed his car, she’d been the first to insist something was wrong. She was the reason people had been out looking for him and Annie before he’d even managed to call anyone.

And there was that one time in high school where he’d broken his arm and Mikasa had called asking about him. Jean had lied through his teeth until she’d believed he was fine, but it still didn’t change the fact that she seemed really in-tune with Eren. When something was wrong, she always knew, no matter what it was.

_“Eren,”_ she said, making him open his eyes. _“ **Are** you okay?”_

“I don’t know,” he whispered, raking one hand through his hair. “I think I’m going crazy, actually.”

_“Well, you probably aren’t if you think you are. Most insane people don’t believe they’re insane.”_

“I’d be the exception to the rule though, wouldn’t I?” He let out a small laugh. She didn’t. He licked his lips, letting out a slow breath. “I’m fine. I am. Sorry.”

She said nothing.

“Hey, is mom there?”

_“One second.”_

He waited, listening to the sounds of Mikasa wandering through the house. There was a murmured conversation, then his mother’s voice rang down the line.

_“Eren, honey, is everything okay?”_

“Yeah,” he lied. “Yeah, everything’s fine. It’s good. Um, sorry, I was just—did Levi ask you about your tattoo?” He tried to keep his voice low, knowing Levi was right outside. He was across the store, but he didn’t trust the creepy man not to come closer to the office to listen in like a creeper.

_“Yes, he did,”_  she said slowly, obviously confused. _“He was very interested in it, said he liked the design. Why do you ask?”_

“You know he got one exactly like it, right?” Eren blurted out. “Same place and everything?”

_“Did he?”_  she sounded surprised. _“Well that’s nice.”_

“No mom, that’s weird.” How could she not find that weird?!

_“Is it, now? And why’s that?”_

“Mom, he got your tattoo on his wrist!”

_“It’s not **my**  tattoo, Eren. People often have similar tattoos.”_

“This is different, it’s not like he picked it out of a book somewhere and happened to get it in the same place as you. He _knew_  about it and went to get the same one in the _same_  place! How is that not weird to you?!”

He heard his mother sigh. _“Honey. I know you’re tired, and overworked, and that Jean has been filling your head with whatever it is Jean fills your head with. I think you’re overreacting a little bit.”_

“I am not—” He cut off when his mother interrupted him, insisting he had to calm down and stop acting like Levi was the enemy.

Eren only agreed to let it go when she promised she would talk to Levi about it—preferably somewhere public. She promised, so he bid her farewell and hung up.

When he exited the office and headed for the storage room, he couldn’t help but feel like Levi knew what he’d been talking about, and he made sure to stay far, _far_  away from him for the entirety of their shift.

* * *

Levi couldn’t decide whether to be amused, or annoyed when he saw Jean walk into Hannes’ Premium Coffee and freeze. He knew that this tended to be where Jean did most of what he considered to be “research,” but apparently Levi’s presence made him dance nervously by the door, as if he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to leave or not.

Eventually, he settled with dropping his things at the furthest table before rushing to the front to place his order. He kept shooting worried glances at Levi, as if he thought he was going to pull out a gun and shoot him right there in the coffee shop.

It was annoying to be seen that way, but it was also amusing in another sense. He wasn’t particularly fond of Jean. Not to say he didn’t like him, he just didn’t like that the little shit had broken into his house with Eren.

He’d gone from being someone Levi cared very little about to someone he was going to need to keep an eye on. He didn’t need Jean making more _insane_  theories that were closer to the truth than Levi would like. If Jean stayed on the serial killer side of things, well, at least he’d be too scared to come near him.

Levi turned to stare out the window, waiting for Carla’s car to pull into the small lot. It did less than thirty seconds later, the woman exiting the car. She waved at Levi through the window with a brilliant smile on her face and Levi offered her a wave in return.

Entering the coffee shop, she smiled at Jean. He nodded to her in greeting, but his eyes were wide while he looked back and forth between Carla and Levi. He wondered if maybe Jean was going to start assuming she was having an affair.

A ridiculous notion, since she very clearly loved her husband, and Levi felt like he wasn’t exactly subtle anymore when he made comments about Eren. He actually thought Carla was thrilled about his interest, if she even acknowledged it as interest.

Hell, Levi didn’t even know if it was interest. Eren confused his brain. Smelled good, though.

“Levi, hello.” Carla set her purse down and took a seat, Levi pushing a cup of tea closer to her. “Oh, thank you. I’m sorry about this, but Eren was quite adamant we meet somewhere more public than the house.” She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I think it’s his fault,” she said, lowering her voice and inclining her head towards Jean. “He’s got a bit of an imagination.”

“So I’ve heard. The most recent theory is that I’m a serial killer.”

Carla looked horrified about this but Levi just shook his head and took a sip of his tea, showing her that he really didn’t care.

“I’m so sorry if my son has implied anything.”

“He’s just a kid.”

Carla smiled, looking amused. “You’re not much older than him. How old are you? Twenty-seven?”

“Twenty-eight.” Levi would be lying if he hadn’t made it a point to find out how old Eren was. A six year age difference looked pretty good, in his opinion.

“Hm.” Carla’s secret little smile suggested she was thinking along the same lines. Levi found it comforting that she was his biggest supporter in this. “You know,” she said, leaning closer and lowering her voice conspiratorially, “I have to wonder if my son sent his little friend to spy on us.”

“I don’t think so. Jean looked ready to wet himself when he walked in and saw me sitting here.”

“You do seem to have that effect on people,” she admitted with a laugh, hands wrapping around her mug of tea. “But just in case that was an act, we should probably discuss what I promised Eren I would address.”

Levi set his own mug down, knowing where this was going. He lifted the end of his long-sleeved shirt without a word to show her the mark on his arm. He watched her carefully while she stared at it, but her face was a smooth mask, giving nothing away.

“When did you get it?”

“A few days ago.”

“Hm. Seems it healed rather quickly.” Her eyes shot to his face, but he was much more practised at masks than she was, so he didn’t react in the slightest.

“I heal fast.” Not a lie.

“Why did you decide to get it?”

“I just thought about what you said. How you got it after meeting your husband.”

“And you think you’ve met your better half?”

“Maybe.”

They stared at one another, and Levi couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps her mark had appeared on her wrist the exact same way his had. She seemed to almost be playing a game, trying to get him to admit how he’d gotten it.

He couldn’t tell her, because if he was wrong about how hers had come about, then she would think he was crazy. If she _had_  gotten hers the same way he had, she was probably waiting for _him_  to say something so that he wouldn’t think _she_  was crazy.

A vicious cycle, really. Not at all helped by the way Jean was not-so-subtly watching them intently from across the coffee shop. If he weren’t busy having a staredown with Carla, he probably would’ve turned to glare at him. As it was, he made sure to keep the intensity in his gaze to a tolerable level and just stared calmly at Carla, picking up his tea and taking a sip.

When it became clear he wasn’t going to say anything more on the subject, Carla hummed, broke eye contact, and picked up her mug, taking a small sip. She was evidently testing the temperature because after the small sip, she took another large one before setting it back down.

“How have things been with Eren? How’s work?”

“Fine,” Levi said. “He still hides in the back most of the time, but he thinks I kill people in my spare time, so I can’t really blame him.”

“He’s a good kid,” she promised, wrapping her hands around her mug again. “Just has a head full of weird ideas.” A thought seemed to occur to her. “Maybe you should come by for dinner one day.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose.” He really didn’t think that was a good idea. Until he could get himself under control, he really couldn’t spend time in Eren’s house. Where Eren was. And his things were. And his room, with a bed.

No. Definitely not.

“Nonsense, I insist.”

“Maybe some other time. After I can spend a shift with Eren where he actually _talks_  to me.”

“You know, I think you’re lucky to spend time with Eren where he keeps his mouth shut,” she teased, taking another sip of her tea. She almost spilled it when her phone began to beep, setting her tea down and pulling it from her purse. She checked the screen and winced. “Shoot, I forgot I had an appointment. I’m sorry.”

Levi just shrugged. He didn’t mind, he had writing to get back to, anyway. He watched Carla stand and gather her things, offering him a smile before turning to leave. She didn’t move away though, her back still to him, but she glanced over her shoulder and smiled.

“Are you sure there’s nothing you want to tell me about your tattoo?” she asked quietly.

“Nope.” Levi stared right back at her, almost challenging her to say something.

She stared back for a moment, then turned away. “Hm.” She still didn’t move away, and Levi saw her looking down at her wrist, rubbing her opposite thumb lightly over the mark. “You know, my father got the same one. And his mother before him, as well. It’s strange, I’ve never heard of someone outside our family getting it.” She turned back to him, giving him another hard look.

Levi just shrugged. “It’s just really cool.”

She smiled. “Of course.” He felt like she knew as well as he did that neither of them had gotten these tattoos. “It was nice chatting with you, Levi. We should do it again.”

“Anytime.”

He watched her walk away, exiting the small coffee shop and getting into her car. She drove away, but he could still hear her car heading down the street, and he focussed on it until he could no longer hear it. Setting his mug down, he let out a small sigh, staring at the mark on his wrist and thinking about Carla’s words.

Her family seemed to get this mark, but Levi knew without a shadow of a doubt he wasn’t part of Carla Jaeger’s family, so why had this appeared on his skin? Why had he been drawn to this stupid town? Why was he so concerned about the Jaeger family? About keeping them safe, keeping them close?

And why was he dreaming about protecting Eren and then fucking him long before he’d ever met the little shit?

Pushing away from the table, he saw Jean jump out of the corner of his eye, but instead of feeling satisfied, he just felt annoyed. Stalking over to the table, he saw Jean sliding lower in his seat, as if trying to disappear beneath the wooden surface his laptop was seated on.

“What’s the new theory today, Jean?” Levi asked. “Anyone turn up murdered you can blame me for?”

Jean shook his head, avoiding his eye. “No,” he said quietly.

“Is it so weird to you that I might just enjoy being left alone up in my house? And that I happen to have trouble sleeping so I drive around town late at night?”

“And go to parties where people get hurt?”

He knew he wasn’t meant to have heard that, Jean having spoken so quietly most people wouldn’t have picked it up.

But Levi wasn’t most people.

“Is that what this is about? That party in Stohess?”

Jean looked up then, seeming horrified at having been heard. Levi pulled out the chair across from him and sat down, folding his hands together. It looked like Jean was about to shit himself.

“I’ve heard things about Stohess,” Levi told him, keeping eye contact, despite how badly he was sure Jean wanted to look away. “I know bad things happen there. It’s not as big as Trost, but it’s bigger than Shiganshina, and the crime rate is high. Crack heads and pedos hang around in places like Stohess, which is close enough to Trost to be considered _the_  place to be if you can’t actually afford the big city. When Eren said he was going there, I got worried. I went to the party to keep an eye on things, that’s it.”

Jean said nothing, but Levi was positive he didn’t believe him.

“You can use your best friend the internet, if you like.” Levi motioned the computer. “I didn’t leave my car the entire night until I heard the screaming.” He leaned closer. “Who do you think it was who called nine-one-one?”

“That was you?” Jean asked, seeming suspicious. The fear on his face made his voice come out more like a squeak than actual suspicion though.

“I know what Stohess is like. I called the cops as soon as the first scream was heard. They showed up, and I was the first person to give a statement.” Levi stood, making Jean flinch. “My name’s in most of the articles. I’m surprised you haven’t come across it. I thought research was your thing.”

“Just because you called the cops, doesn’t mean it wasn’t you who attacked those people. It just means you’re smart enough not to get caught,” Jean said in a quiet, almost terrified voice.

“Think whatever you want, Jean. I’ve got nothing to hide.” He started to leave, then turned back to him and offered him a smile. “Unlike you and Eren. Break into my house again, and maybe you’ll find out if I really _am_  a serial killer.”

The way all the colour drained from Jean’s face should’ve been satisfying, but it wasn’t. Levi didn’t _want_  to scare him more, he was just fed up with people thinking something was wrong with him.

He liked his privacy, and Jean seemed to like to stick his big nose where it definitely didn’t belong.

Levi really didn’t want him to get killed because of it.

* * *

Eren knew he was a bad friend, because only a bad friend would be ignoring Jean’s calls for over seventeen hours. But he had good reason, because Jean apparently had been present when Levi and his mother had gone out for tea, and he hadn’t stopped texting him about it.

He didn’t fucking care that they’d gone out for tea, he just cared that his mother had actually listened to him. She’d even mentioned the conversation at dinner that night, where Eren was happy to hear his dad bring up that he didn’t like the tattoo Levi had gotten, either. Carla had been fairly adamant that it was nothing, and Levi had expressed a strong interest in it, especially after she’d explained what it meant to him.

When Eren had asked what it meant, she’d just winked and told him it was a secret. Not particularly comforting.

In that time, Jean had been calling and texting him incessantly. He was positive the only reason he hadn’t shown up at Eren’s house was because Carla might say something since Jean had been at the coffee shop. He probably didn’t want Carla to know he was keeping tabs on Levi.

Which was why Eren should’ve expected to find Jean outside the store the following day when he arrived, pacing nervously and looking massively pissed at the sight of Eren.

“You got a new truck?! Fuck that, I don’t care, why did you ignore my calls and texts?!”

“Because you’re being a crazy person,” Eren insisted, eyes shifting to the large window behind the till. He let out a frustrated sigh when he saw Levi sitting at the till, typing away at his laptop. Did that guy not have anything better to do than show up early or take over other people’s shifts? It was supposed to be him and Thomas today.

“Why did you tell him we broke into his house?”

Eren turned back to Jean, confused. “What?”

“He knows!” he hissed, inching closer to Eren. “He knows about us breaking into his house! Why did you tell him?”

“I didn’t, he found out.” Eren was offended Jean thought he would tell anyone about that. He was still ashamed and embarrassed he had done it, so there was no way he’d be _sharing_  it.

Also: illegal. That too.

“How the hell did he find out?!”

“I don’t know, maybe he has cameras or something. He knew we were in the basement.”

“He’s got a cage in the basement, of course we’d be in the basement,” Jean snapped, running his hand up the back of his head, rubbing at his undercut. “Shit. Is he gonna tell anyone?”

Eren shrugged. “He hasn’t yet.”

“What’d your mom say about their conversation?”

He shrugged again. “Nothing much. Just that they’d talked about the tattoo a lot and Levi liked what it represented, whatever that means.”

“You are starting to sound like you don’t care anymore. Eren, this guy is _dangerous_!”

“Look, I’m actually tired of... being freaked out. I’m tired of being scared of him. I hate finding him creepy. He’s actually... pretty nice.”

“Nice?” Jean hissed incredulously.

“Jean, we broke into his house,” Eren insisted quietly, looking around to make sure nobody could hear him. The only person nearby was Levi on the other side of the glass, so he couldn’t hear anything. “We did something _illegal_ , for the second time involving that house, by the way. But he didn’t say anything to anyone. He just told us both not to do it again.”

“He threatened to kill me after your mom left!”

“ _I_  threaten to kill you on a daily basis,” Eren said with a sigh. “Jean, I know living here sucks. Trust me, I’m right there with you, but this has to stop. It was fun for a while, but now it’s just getting weird.” He stared at the back of Levi’s head, and saw that he’d stopped typing. He wondered if maybe he was hitting a bout of writer’s block. “I’m gonna go in there, and I’m gonna apologize to him for everything that’s happened since he got here. I’m not saying you have to follow my lead, but I’m done with this. He is a _famous_  writer, worth millions of dollars. He is _not_  a serial killer.”

Jean looked like he wanted to argue, but seemed to have lost anything he could have used to argue _with_. He just stared at Eren helplessly, as if waiting for him to help him out, but Eren just patted his shoulder once, then moved to head into the store.

Walking through the door, he forced himself to walk past the till for once before running to the office.

“Hey,” he said, walking by Levi.

“Hi,” the other replied, not even looking up from his screen.

Eren turned down another aisle and moved to the back of the store, walking into the office. He sighed when he found Reiner there counting out the till with Annie sitting on the desk, her legs crossed and eyes on what Reiner was doing.

“Annie, you’re not supposed to be back here,” he insisted, knowing there was no point in kicking her out. She probably wouldn’t leave even if he asked her to.

“I just got bored waiting for Reiner to finish in here.” She turned to Eren. “Your new cashier’s an asshole.”

“He takes some getting used to,” Eren muttered, dropping his bag and tugging off his shirt. Annie whistled and Eren snorted, dropping his shirt onto the back of a chair and then rooting through his bag for his work one, tugging it on over his head.

“So I looked at your schedule,” Annie said, motioning the piece of paper on the desk. His father had likely left it there for Reiner to pick up. “You’re gonna be free the day after tomorrow in the evening, right?”

“Yeah.” Eren grinned and crossed his arms. “Why? Wanna go on a date?”

“If you’re paying, sounds good.”

Eren snorted, but admitted he’d walked into that one. Annie started looking up movie times and they discussed what would work best for the two of them while Reiner finished up.

They got their plans organized in time for him to finish and then the three of them walked out of the office. Annie told him she’d kill him if he bailed again, slapping his cheek lightly like she always did before leaving the store with Reiner.

Eren smiled at her retreating form, but caught Levi scowling at her the whole way out of the store and into her car. He even kept staring until her car pulled away, Reiner’s right behind it since they’d obviously not arrived together.

Eren focussed his attention on Levi, waiting for him to acknowledge his presence. Once Annie and Reiner’s cars were out of sight, he turned back to Eren, eyes locked on him.

He felt some sense of accomplishment at not feeling the need to wet his pants right then, able to maintain eye contact and be a normal person.

Licking his lips, he closed his eyes briefly, took a breath, then spoke.

“I’m really sorry,” he said quietly, almost afraid that admitting it truly _was_  him who’d broken in would only make matters worse. Irrelevant, since Levi _knew_  it was him, but still. “You’re right. Jean and I broke into your place, but it was just... harmless stupidity. We were just curious about the new guy and Jean came up with this stupid idea to look around and I just... went along with it. I shouldn’t have, but I did. We invaded your privacy, we broke into your house, and I’m really sorry.” He let out a small breath. “And I’m sorry about the tattoo. It’s just—I love my mom, and you showing up, and working at the store, and having tea with my mom, it just... It’s weird, but I guess I get it. I mean, your options are idiots like Jean and I in your age group, or people like Pixis, Hannes and my mom, who are a lot more mature. So while I still find it weird, I’m gonna let it go because my mom asked me to. I’m sorry about being an ass since you got here.”

Levi was watching him, leaning back in the seat behind the till with his arms crossed, eyes doing a slow once over from the top of his head to the tip of his toes, then back up to lock eyes. The look was definitely less intense than usual, and Eren felt like the only reason he had a sick feeling in his stomach was because he was worried Levi wasn’t going to accept his apology and would call the cops on him.

“It’s the cage, isn’t it?”

Eren frowned. “What?”

“You wanted to know about the cage.” Levi leaned forward and turned his laptop around. It was open on some kind of word document, the entire page almost filled in with text, obviously a book he was working on. “Go ahead. Read it.”

Hesitating, Eren took a slow step forward and, when Levi didn’t leap over the counter to attack him, he moved right up to it and looked down. It was on page two-hundred and seventeen, suggesting it was likely close to the end of whatever book this was. Then again, Eren had never written a book before, so for all he knew, two-hundred and seventeen pages was nothing.

Focussing on what he was meant to be doing, Eren started at the top of the page and slowly read.

It was exactly as Connie’s father had said. The main character—a man by the name of Jonah—was sitting trapped in a large cage in an unknown person’s basement. The page itself didn’t give a lot of context on the overall story, but it was obvious that he was trapped in there. Eren wondered how many hours Levi sat in the cage while writing to be able to accurately portray the way this character seemed to be going out of his mind.

“So... it’s for a book, then?” he asked slowly, looking up at Levi.

The older man turned the laptop back to face him and kept their eyes locked. “It’s for a book.”

“Do you always do things like that?” Eren asked. “I mean, ordering a cage so that you can accurately portray someone living in one?”

“If possible.” Levi hit a few buttons on his laptop then slapped the top shut, as if telling Eren he had his complete, undivided attention. Well shit, Eren hadn’t expected things to go this well so quickly, he was a little out of sorts now, but he tried not to show it.

“It helps the flow if I can experience the same thing as the character I’m writing,” Levi admitted.

“So for the agent, did you have a mock kidnap happen when you wr—” Eren cut himself off, realizing he’d just admitted that he’d read one of his books.

Levi didn’t even react. Eren had expected him to act cocky, make fun of him for having stooped low enough to read his work.

He didn’t. He just answered.

“My friend Hanji is into the weird stuff. They didn’t kidnap me, per se, but they tied me to a chair and tried to help elicit the same feelings the character would’ve had. I think it worked pretty well.”

“No, it worked amazingly,” Eren blurted out before he could stop himself. “That scene was really suspenseful and I felt worried for the agent! But I mean, was he ever _really_  in danger? He’s half-Vampire, after all.”

“Even Supernatural beings have their weaknesses,” Levi said, tone almost bitter. Eren figured he hated having to find things that were actually dangerous to his immortal character.

“I suppose.” He shifted his weight again, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Um, look, I know—we kind of started off really weird, and the whole breaking into your house thing didn’t help, but can we maybe... start over? Or something? Everyone keeps telling me that you’re actually really nice, and you seem like a cool guy, and your work is-is really good. And we’re gonna be working together for a while, it looks like, so it’d be really nice if we could, you know, get along.”

Levi just stared at him, and Eren wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have said anything. Maybe he should’ve just let the pieces fall as they’d been falling, considering things had been going well the past few minutes. Dammit, why had he opened his mouth?

Finally, Levi said, “Sure. I have one favour to ask though.”

“Okay.”

“Tomorrow, you’re working the night shift again, right?”

“I am,” Eren said slowly, uncertainly. Did Levi want to switch or something? A ridiculous thought, since Levi wasn’t a manager, but it was the only thing Eren could think of.

“I’m working the day shift with Reiner, who has told me numerous times I’m not allowed to leave until you show up. I have something important to do tomorrow. Be on time.”

“Oh.” He had no idea why, but being berated about being late by the newest member of the team kind of made Eren feel uncomfortably embarrassed. “Yeah. Sorry. I was—it really was an accident last time. I won’t do it again.”

Levi nodded and then flipped open his laptop again, clearly saying the conversation was over. Eren supposed he could understand, Levi often used his time at the store to write, so he probably didn’t want Eren there bothering him.

Still, he couldn’t help but ask, “Do you have a hot date or something?”

Levi’s eyes rose to look at him, as if trying to read his expression. “No, I just don’t like being out after sundown,” he muttered, looking back down and typing away on his laptop.

Eren frowned. “But you’re always out after sundown.”

“Not always.”

The way he’d said it sounded so defeated that Eren couldn’t bring himself to press, so he decided to let it go. He rolled on the balls of his feet for a few seconds, then pressed forward on the counter.

“So can I read it?”

“No.”

“Come on! I’ll let you have a free basket of groceries.”

“Still no.”

“Come on! Just the beginning pages? Five pages? Two?”

“No.”

“I thought we were bonding!”

“No.”

“Levi!”

* * *

“Keys,” Eren muttered, wandering around his room and lifting his pillow off his bed, then all his blankets. “Keys. Keys...” He began looking around his dresser, moving various items off its surface and then turning to his desk, still muttering the same word over and over.

He got onto his hands and knees, checking under his desk, then under his bed. He crawled around on all fours for a few seconds, and when his hand fell onto a pair of jeans he’d worn the day before, he felt something in one of the pockets.

“Aha! Keys!” He pulled them out triumphantly and shoved them into the pockets of the pants he was currently wearing, patting the rest of them to ensure he had his wallet and phone, as well. Confirming he had everything he needed and was ready to go, he exited his room, whistling to himself and started for Mikasa’s room to let her know he was leaving.

Pushing open the door, he opened his mouth to speak and found her staring intently at her computer screen, her back to the door and her noise-cancelling headphones on. Wandering into the room, his hand was right above her shoulder, ready to come down to let her know he was there when it froze.

His eyes had caught sight of her screen, and what she was looking at. It appeared to be some kind of genealogy tree, most of the little squares for people’s names blank. Normally, this wouldn’t concern him, but what _did_  concern him was the fact that she had Levi’s name in an unconnected box with a bunch of question marks beside it right alongside her own name.

She switched tabs while Eren stood there, hand hovering above her shoulder, and began to type again. It was an email to someone Eren didn’t recognize, thanking them for their time and to be in touch if they found anything else out. Then she switched to another screen that showed an article of Levi’s initial rise to fame.

He knew she would hate it if she found out he was standing there watching her work, but he couldn’t really let this go. He, Armin and Jean hadn’t exactly made much progress, mostly because they’d hit a brick wall and had kind of moved away from it. Well, he and Jean had, he doubted Armin had stopped, but as much as they all made fun of Jean, he really _was_  the researcher in their group. Armin probably hadn’t had much luck since they’d both bailed. And now he felt guilty for not being more observant, for not trying harder. He felt bad for wanting to go out and have fun, complaining about working so much and not having a social life.

His sister was sitting in her room trying to find a connection that likely didn’t even exist with someone who’d just moved to town, and what was he doing? Going to watch a movie with Annie. He was a dick.

Eren remembered Annie’s words to him two days before and let out a small sigh.

“She’s gonna be so pissed,” he muttered to himself, realizing he couldn’t go out anymore. He needed to stay home with Mikasa. He didn’t want her staying by herself.

Finally completing the action he’d planned on doing when he’d entered her room, he let his hand fall onto her shoulder and she jumped, whipping around while tabbing out of the article. Their eyes locked and he could tell she knew how much he had seen based on her expression.

Pulling the headphones off her ears, music now escaping them, she brushed hair out of her face, eyes searching Eren’s.

“How much did you see?”

“Enough,” he said quietly. “I’m gonna go check if we still have coffee left, okay? Come down when you’re ready.”

He turned to leave the room, intent on doing just that, but she spoke. “I thought you were going to see Annie.”

“I did too.” He stopped at her door and hit the jamb lightly with his fist, turning to look at her. “But I think it’s safe to say you’re much more important to me than she is. She’ll understand.”

“Will she?”

Eren ignored that comment, told her to come down when she was ready, and exited her room. Sighing, he pulled out his phone and texted Annie, knowing this wasn’t going to go over well. Her response was almost immediate. He walked slowly into the kitchen, still texting her, the two of them having a short back and forth. When he felt like it was a good place to leave off, he shoved his phone back in his pocket and checked the coffee machine. It needed to be run again so he threw out the old grounds and put a new filter into the machine, letting it run and then grabbing two mugs. He sat down at the table, rubbing his face and already trying to go over everything in his head.

How was he supposed to have this conversation with her? Especially since he could see why she was doing it. He also found it weird how similar they looked, how convenient it was that they had the same name, how strange it was that she could look him in the eye from the beginning and not get the heebie jeebies.

Something about their relationship was strange. It just _was_. Mikasa and Levi... he felt like they were related somehow, and he didn’t blame her for wanting to look into it. He just didn’t want her to get hurt, either.

By the time she’d finally descended the stairs, the coffee was done brewing and had cooled enough that Eren could take a sip from his mug without it burning his mouth. She took a seat beside him, taking the second mug and pulling it closer, cupping her hands around it but not drinking it.

Eren had no idea how to start this, so he decided on starting with a joke.

“You’re turning as obsessive as Jean is, does everyone have a crush on Levi or something?”

It did not have the desired effect. She didn’t even look at him, fingers rubbing along the edges of the mug. Eren pressed his lips together, turned back to his own drink and took an awkward sip. There wasn’t exactly a manual on this kind of thing, and he didn’t know that he was even any good at it. He suddenly wished Armin was there, but Armin wasn’t her brother. _He_  was.

“Look,” he tried again, speaking quietly and wincing slightly. “If you want to look into Levi, that’s fine, but don’t... shut me out. I don’t want you to stop confiding in me.” He rubbed along the lip of his cup, avoiding looking at her while he spoke. “I know this is weird, and confusing, and I don’t know if he’s related to you or it’s just a huge coincidence but please just talk to me, okay?” he turned to glance at her and found her watching him.

It made him feel uncomfortable and he looked away again, clearing his throat and taking another sip of his drink.

“I was just surprised, is all.”

Eren turned to her when she spoke. She was looking into her mug now, playing with the edges and frowning.

“I didn’t expect to... feel that way. When I first saw him, actually stopped and _looked_  at him, I was surprised. I think—he was too. He looked surprised and I guess finding out his last name is Ackerman...”

Eren sighed and reached over, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer, kissing her temple before pressing his cheek against the top of her head. “I know that you want him to be family because of what happened, but you have to understand that no matter what you find out, whether he is or he isn’t, you’re still _my_  family. You will always be my family, and I will always love you. If you want to keep digging, Jean, Armin and I will have your back. Whatever you need, we’ll be there. And if we find out he’s your relative, great. But if he’s not, that’s also still great because you’ve got a family who loves and cares about you right here.”

“I know I do.” She reached up to take his hand and let out a small sigh. “I’m sorry about your plans with Annie.”

“She’ll get over it. You’re the most important person in the world to me. She’ll understand.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“She’ll have to live with it. You’re my sister. I will always protect you.”

“Only if you can protect yourself,” Mikasa teased, the two of them laughing.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got you around to keep me safe.”

* * *

**[JaegerMeister]  
** hey...  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
so i have some bad news

**[Annie]**  
This should be good.

**[JaegerMeister]**  
i know we had plans  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
but something came up  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
its kind of unavoidable

**[Annie]**  
Of course it is  
 **[Annie]**  
You’ve been bailing on me a lot lately.

**[JaegerMeister]**  
i know i have  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
i’m sorry  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
i’m a shitty shitty friend  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
i’ll make it up to you i promise

**[Annie]**  
You keep PROMISING to make things up to me  
 **[Annie]**  
How about promising to keep a fucking plan for once

**[JaegerMeister]**  
im really really REALLY REALLY REALLY sorry :(  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
i promise i will NOT bail next time  
 **[JaegerMeister]**  
I PROMISE!!!! 

**[Annie]**  
You better not.  
 **[Annie]**  
You’re on thin ice.  
 **[Annie]**  
Watch you don’t fall through.

* * *

He knew he had to knock. He knew that he couldn’t just stand outside forever, acting like not knocking would fix all his problems. He knew he had to face the facts, knock on the door, and speak to the people on the other side.

There had to be a level of trust, or he wasn’t going to be able to make it through this. He had no choice, and as much as he wished there was another way, there wasn’t.

Letting out a slow breath, Levi reached up to knock when the door swung open.

“Levi!”

He wished there was a way he could kill someone and claim it to be self-defence, because with the way Hanji was hugging him, it was cutting off his air supply and should definitely qualify as self-defence.

“Why were you just standing out here like that? We knew you were here, obviously, but Erwin wanted to wait until you were ready to come in, but once you raised your arm I couldn’t help myself! Oh, I missed you so much!”

They were rocking him from side to side now, hugging him even tighter, and kissing at his temple and any other parts of his face they could reach.

“Oh, you smell good! Who have you been spending time with?”

“Get off me, Shitty-Glasses!” Levi shoved one hand into his friend’s scarred face and shoved them away from him without answering the question. The force would’ve knocked anyone else on their ass, but this was Hanji. Given they were the same as him, it did nothing but move their head away from his face so he could move under their outstretched arms and enter the apartment. He wandered further into it, heading for the kitchen where he could hear Erwin making dinner.

Hanji closed the door behind them and pranced after Levi, the two of them entering the kitchen at the same time.

“Why is Hanji here?” he demanded, putting his overnight bag on the floor and dropping his laptop case on the island.

“They missed you. More people wanted to come, but I told them to give you space. I didn’t think you’d want to see them after what happened.”

Levi’s jaw worked, but he nodded in thanks, sitting down on one of the stools and pulling out his laptop, booting it up. He wouldn’t even have come if not for the fact that he needed Erwin. He’d always been his first reader for anything he wrote since they’d met, and while he knew he could’ve just emailed it to him, he kind of wanted an excuse to visit him. They weren’t seeing much of each other now that he’d moved out to Singanshina, but thankfully they were still close enough. Less than a five hour drive.

“Finished already, then?” Erwin asked with a small smile, wiping his hands on a dish towel and moving around the island. He was wearing an apron covered in blood. Levi couldn’t help but wonder if Erwin had gone hunting for their dinner in the apron. The thought was somewhat amusing to him.

“I’ve had a lot of time out there. I can write at work, and when I’m not at work, I write at home.”

“All right, well, I’ll have a look at it after dinner,” Erwin said, even as he came around behind Levi and reached over so he could scroll slightly, eyes moving back and forth rapidly. “How’re things with Eren?”

Levi shot him a warning look, but Erwin ignored it, continuing to read while Hanji asked who Eren was in a much too excited fashion.

“He’s no one,” Levi muttered.

“Is that who you smell like?”

“No.”

“I know you’re lying to me,” Hanji insisted.

Levi shot Erwin another glare. “Things have been fine,” he said, ignoring Hanji. “We’re fine. We even talk, now.”

“Hm. Still dreaming about him?”

“You’re dreaming about someone?” Hanji asked excitedly, which earned Erwin another murderous glare from Levi. “So the faceless dream-man has a face now? That’s exciting!”

“Not really,” Levi commented, pulling the laptop away from Erwin before he got too engrossed and burned their dinner. “What are we eating?”

“Steak. I haven’t put it on yet, wasn’t sure what you were in the mood for.”

“Rare.”

“Figured as much. Hanji?”

“Same.” They fell down beside Levi and stretched loudly, resting their upper body along the counter and turning their head to watch Levi. “So, this mystery dream man, he hot?”

“Well he’s not on fire, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Hanji just laughed and began poking at him asking for details, wanting to know everything.

As annoying as they were, Levi found himself relaxing for the first time since having left his house. Being away from Eren was... stressful. He didn’t know if something might happen while he was gone. He didn’t want to even _think_  about it. But being here, with Hanji and Erwin, he felt calmer. He felt at ease.

This was familiar, and he liked it. He _missed_  it, not that he’d admit that to them. He hadn’t been planning on leaving Trost, it had just happened because of the feeling. Now, being back, he wished he hadn’t left while simultaneously knowing he had no choice. Clearly whatever weirdness he’d been feeling related to Eren, and if he hadn’t gone when he had, he would’ve ended up out there eventually.

The feelings of protectiveness were normal, and he knew that. They just didn’t tend to happen with someone he’d just met. It was weird, and uncomfortable, and made him wonder what it was about Eren that had his protective instincts kicked into overdrive.

It made sense with Farlan, he understood why he’d reacted the way he had back in those woods when he’d watched his friend die before his eyes. It even made sense with Isabel, who was the love of his life until the accident. Hell, it made sense with Erwin and Hanji, who were the two closest people to him, who he would literally walk through fire for.

But Eren?

What exactly had Eren done to earn his protective streak? All he did was act like an idiot and break into people’s homes. Levi was just lucky he’d decided it would be a good idea to write a book based on the cage he’d commissioned in case anything like this happened. If he hadn’t thought about it, he didn’t know _what_  people would think. At least he had some backup now.

And Eren seemed to believe it, which was the important thing.

He wondered what he was doing. Was he at work right now? Probably, he tended to be the one working the night shifts. Levi barely saw Grisha or Thomas when he drove by, it was almost always Eren. He liked it when the nights were warm and Eren left the door cracked. Levi could hear him more easily when he spoke on the phone or to customers.

It made him antsy when he didn’t know what was going on inside, even if he could see him. Something was a danger to his life, and the more time he spent with him, the more Levi worried the danger he sensed was _him_.

Levi knew getting close was a bad idea. He knew it would be a mistake. Hell, he was lucky things had turned out okay with Hanji, but that was a one in a million flukes. He couldn’t afford to get involved with Eren or next thing he knew, his protectiveness would end up being the thing to kill him.

“Hey.” Levi’s head snapped up when Erwin spoke, the blond man standing across from him, surveying him intently with his sharp blue eyes. “You know you can be open here, Levi. We have no secrets. If you need to talk, then talk.”

He couldn’t. Not about Eren. He still didn’t know what was going on with him. But Erwin wouldn’t let it go, and he knew that from experience, so he decided on another topic.

“There’s a girl in town, Mikasa Ackerman. She’s Eren’s adoptive sister.” Levi leaned back in his seat, scratching absently at his cheek. “She looks a lot like me. I did some digging around, found out a few things about her family, but nothing useful. Think you can look into it for me?”

Erwin paused at the stove, eying him. “You think she might be...”

Levi shrugged in response. “Better to be safe than sorry, right?”

“Sure. I’ll look into it.”

He nodded in thanks, ready to move on from this topic of discussion, when Erwin spoke again.

“When did you get that?”

“Hm?” Levi looked back at him. Erwin motioned his wrist and Levi stared down at it, tracing the triangle with his opposite thumb much like Carla seemed to do. “A little while back.”

“Didn’t take you for the tattoo type. What changed?”

Levi didn’t answer, because he didn’t know how to without lying. He figured it was safer to just say nothing, and Erwin didn’t press, turning back to their food. They fell silent again.

Well, as silent as it could be with Hanji around, who was starting to discuss the new experiments they were conducting in their lab. They tried to convince Levi to come by to check them out, but thankfully the author was leaving the following evening, so he wouldn’t have time. He had a few stops to make in town while Erwin read over the new book, and then he would be leaving.

The best bullet he’d ever dodged.

“Dinner will be ready soon,” Erwin commented, turning off the stove and checking the oven. “Let’s drop the mad scientist talk and eat some food.”

“Spoilsport.” Hanji grinned and pranced away towards the dining room table.

Levi stood slowly, walking beside Erwin and giving him a look that clearly said he hated him for having invited Hanji. The older man just laughed.

“You know you’d have been disappointed not to see them. Besides, it was this, or they were going to drive up and visit you.”

Levi made a face at that, and Erwin laughed.

Maybe it was better that they’d shown up at Erwin’s. If Hanji had visited him out in the middle of nowhere, it would’ve made it easier for Levi to murder them and hide the body in the acres and acres of woods behind his house.

Eren and Jean already thought he was a serial killer. It would be best not to feed that rumour.

* * *

He couldn’t decide if he was watching too many people on Tumblr, or not enough. It was a weird balance where most of the time he felt there was nothing new on his dashboard, and other times he felt like too many people were reblogging the same things.

Eren sighed, lying on his stomach on his bed, hugging his pillow beneath himself with one arm and scrolling slowly through his dash on his phone with his other hand. His entire family was at work, Jean was MIA, Armin was helping his grandfather, Annie was mad at him and Eren didn’t have any other friends. A rare day off, and he had nobody to hang out with. He felt pathetic, and it only furthered the idea that he was going to die sad and alone in a cottage somewhere on the outskirts of town chasing children off his lawn with a shovel.

He wished he had a weird half-Vampire FBI agent infatuated with him, like the character in Levi’s book. He recognized it was weird wanting to be stalked, but Levi wrote it so well that it made him wonder if anyone would ever look at him that way. The love interest was so protected, and safe. He was always at the forefront of the protagonist’s mind. Eren doubted anyone thought of him that way.

It would be nice to be able to date someone. At the rate things were going, he and his three friends were all going to die alone. Armin seemed pretty asexual, so he likely wasn’t going to find anyone. Jean was in love with Mikasa, which was never going to happen. Mikasa didn’t show interest in anyone, so Eren didn’t even know where to go with her. And then him... he hadn’t found the right person yet. He didn’t care who it was: guy, girl, non-binary, old, young. Whatever. He just wanted someone, and so far: not working.

Levi was pretty hot though, but it was way too soon to start entertaining that thought. They’d only barely started talking to each other without snarling or snapping. Besides, he didn’t know Levi well enough, he was just infatuated with the idea of him because he was hot and an amazing writer.

Eren let out another loud sigh when his head jerked up and towards the window. He could’ve sworn someone had just called his name. Frowning, he got to his feet, dropping his phone on the bed and wandered to his window. Wrenching it open, he leaned out slightly, squinting against the harsh sunlight and looked around. Nobody was out right now, most of them probably at work or school. Or out having lives, which he didn’t have.

He waited a few seconds, then decided he’d imagined it. Just as he’d started to close the window, he heard it again. Louder this time, and he almost fell out the window in his haste to lean out further.

“Hello?” he called out into the stillness of the day.

_“Eren!”_

“Who’s out there?” he demanded, trying to pinpoint the voice. He couldn’t even tell if it was male or female. It sounded weird, garbled.

When it came again, he moved back into his room and slammed the window shut. Grabbing his keys off his desk, he hurried out of his room and took the stairs two at a time, shoving his feet into his sneakers and exiting the house. He contemplated taking his new truck, but felt like the engine would probably drown out the person calling out to him.

Jogging slowly up the street, he listened hard and heard it again.

_“Eren, come this way!”_

“Hello?” he called again, turning and moving towards the dense forest behind their block. His feet fell loudly against the concrete sidewalk, but once he hit the trees, the soft earth muffled his steps slightly. He was a few feet into the forest when a sharp pain sparked through his left foot. He paused for a second, leaning against a tree to check the bottom of his shoe, but he saw nothing.

Deciding to ignore it, he shook the feeling off and began to jog again, each step onto his left foot sending pain up his leg.

_“Eren, you need to come this way! This way, Eren!”_

“Who’s out there?” he demanded, turning accordingly to head towards the voice. It was still difficult for him to determine whether it was male or female, but they sounded... serene. It was weird. They were calling out to him, but it sounded more playful, calm. It wasn’t an urgent call, more of a request for a good time.

He stopped in the middle of a clearing, spinning slowly in a circle. He waited a few seconds, then heard the call again and began running full tilt now. He slapped tree branches out of his face, rushing through the undergrowth, feet pounding against the dirt. His left foot still bothered him every time he put pressure on it but he ignored that and just ran faster.

He didn’t know why, but he had to reach this person. He had to get to them. It was important, it was _urgent_! Even if they didn’t sound urgent, or scared, something about the calmness of their voice made him feel like he had to get to them.

Stopping to catch his breath, and now impossibly lost in the woods, he spun slowly, waiting for them to call out again.

_“Come this way, Eren! It’s this way! Hurry, Eren!”_

He’d started to take a step when another, louder voice broke through. This one didn’t sound calm and serene. This one sounded concerned. It sounded worried.

And it sounded close.

“Eren!”

Snapping his head to the right towards the voice, he blinked a few times when the brightness of day was suddenly gone. It was almost pitch black, and he wasn’t standing in the forest. He was on the road, one of the main roads leading out of town. There was barely any illumination from the half-moon, and the streetlights were intermittent in the area so that he could barely see anything.

Looking down, he found himself wearing nothing but the boxer-briefs he’d worn to bed, and his feet were bare.

His left one was bleeding.

“Eren.”

He looked up, locating the source of the voice, and found Levi standing in front of him. His eyes were bright in the darkness, and Eren noticed his truck pulled over on the side of the road. He remembered his father saying Levi was going out of town for a few days so he wasn’t on the schedule. He must’ve been on his way back.

“Eren,” he said again, forcing the brunet to look at him. He didn’t understand what was happening. Wasn’t he just in the woods? Why was the sun gone? And where were his clothes?

“Was it you?” he asked. His voice sounded weird to his own ears. Like his mouth was full of cotton.

“What?” Levi asked. He had one hand out in front of himself, as if worried Eren was going to lunge at him. They were a few feet apart and slowly, very slowly, Levi moved a bit closer. “Eren, do you know where you are?”

He didn’t answer, because he honestly didn’t know. He’d been following the voice. He was supposed to be in the forest. How had time passed so quickly? Why was he in the middle of the road?

And why was Levi there? How was it that Levi had found him? And they were alone, wasn’t that a bad thing? Had Levi followed him?

No. No, he’d been out of town. He’d just been thinking that. Levi had been out of town. He was on his way back. He’d seen him. It was a coincidence.

Wasn’t it?

“Eren, are you—are you okay?” Levi asked, voice calm and steady. He was still slowly approaching him, closing the distance. “Do you know what you’re doing out here?”

Eren looked around, eyes still trying to adjust to the darkness. His breathing began to quicken, and he could feel his heart racing in his chest. “The voice.”

“What voice?” Levi asked. He was right in front of him now, hesitating briefly before his hand fell on Eren’s shoulder. “Eren, what are you doing out here?”

“I was following the voice.”

“There’s no voice, Eren.” His eyes were too bright. Eren couldn’t look at them, they were hurting his own. Levi’s eyes were much too bright.

He covered his face with both hands, struggling to process what was going on. His chest hurt with how fast his heart was beating. His breathing was ragged and he felt like he was suffocating.

Why was he here? He hadn’t been meaning to come here. He felt confused. He felt out of it. What the fuck was happening. Jesus, had he been drugged or something?

“Hey. Hey, it’s okay. Calm down.” Levi’s hand was rubbing his shoulder now. “Eren, it’s okay. Just calm down, take a deep breath.”

“Why am I here?” Eren asked behind his hands, brain slowly trying to kick itself back into gear. “I was in the woods. Where are my pants?”

Levi was silent for a few seconds, but somehow having him there was making Eren’s racing heart calm down. His hand was warm against his skin, and his presence was... soothing. The fear he felt was beginning to ebb. Levi made him feel safe.

“Eren, I think you were sleepwalking. Do you—Is that something you’ve done in the past?”

Was it? No, he didn’t think so. His head hurt. His foot hurt more. He was cold. His brain felt all jumbled up and confused. Where the hell _was_  he?

“Are you—Can I... take you home?” Levi asked. His voice sounded strained, like he was worried, or scared. Eren didn’t understand why. “Eren, do you-do you need help getting home?”

Home. He was in the middle of the street. His foot hurt. He was cold.

He should go home.

No. He had to find the voice. He had to get to the voice.

Eren tried to take a step, pain sparking from his injured foot, and Levi’s hand tightened on his shoulder. He was so warm. And safe. What if the voice was Levi? Maybe that was it. The voice was Levi.

Closing his eyes, Eren leaned forward into the other man. He heard Levi curse, as if not having expected it, but when Eren fell against him Levi didn’t move. He was like a rock, strong and sturdy. And warm.

The longer he stood there with him, the safer he felt. Something about Levi just made him feel safe. He hadn’t noticed before. Hadn’t realized that he was like this. He liked this feeling.

“Eren, we should get you home.”

Eren’s eyes opened slowly. He was still leaning against Levi, the other man barely touching him now. One hand was still gripping his shoulder, but the other was hovering somewhere near his back, avoiding actually touching his skin.

“Yeah...” Eren frowned, trying to form the right words. His head still hurt. “I should go home.”

“Yeah,” Levi agreed, seeming relieved Eren was agreeing. “Okay, come on. Let’s get you to the truck.”

Levi was pushing him away now, shifting him and helping him walk to the truck. He didn’t remember the trip to the truck. He blinked, and they were driving. His head was bouncing painfully against the window. He straightened it, turning to look at Levi. His eyes still shone unnaturally in the darkness and his hands were clenched tightly around the steering wheel. He looked worried. Tense. His eyes kept darting back and forth, as if looking for something dangerous.

Eren leaned his head against the window again and closed his eyes.

“Eren.” Levi was speaking again. He opened his eyes, and he was staring at the house across the street from his own. He was at the bottom of his driveway, heading back for the road.

“Eren, you’re going the wrong way,” Levi insisted, hand on his shoulder again. It spread warmth through him, having that one touch. He closed his eyes again, letting the safe feeling return. He liked it. It was nice.

“Come on, let’s get you back inside.”

Eren felt himself being turned and he opened his eyes, allowing Levi to lead him back towards the house. The front door was wide open. Why was the door open?

Levi didn’t comment on it, he just helped Eren into the house and shut the door behind them, locking it. Eren found that to be weird. No one locked doors in this town, it was always safe. Nothing bad ever happened.

Not with Levi here.

“I can’t afford to leave the door unlocked,” Levi muttered, seeming to speak to himself. “I guess I can just climb out your window.”

Eren couldn’t help but laugh at that, finding it funny someone as tiny as Levi thought he could jump out a second-story window. Why was he leaving him anyway, shouldn’t he stay?

He wanted him to stay.

Eren slumped against him again, closing his eyes. “My head hurts.”

“I think we need to worry about your foot more,” Levi muttered.

“You smell good.”

“Now I _know_  you’re dreaming,” was Levi’s snorted response.

Eren let out a slow breath and felt himself moving again. He couldn’t hear Levi anymore, like he’d gone silent. Levi was always silent. But he also felt safe. Safe was good.

When Eren opened his eyes again, he jerked up into bed, heart racing and eyes scanning his room. The sun was shining through his window brightly, and his alarm clock proudly proclaimed the time as nine forty-seven in the morning.

“Shit.” Eren rubbed his face, realizing it had been a dream. A completely fucked up, messed up, incoherent dream.

Throwing the covers off himself, he turned to stand and immediately buckled when pain shot up his left foot. He caught himself on his nightstand, then looked down at his feet.

His left foot was covered in gauze, red peeking through in some places.

Eren looked back over at his window.

It was open. 


	7. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> How To Train Your Dragon (c) Dreamworks  
> Jurassic World (c) Universal Studios

“I still don’t understand how this happened,” Grisha muttered, bent down in front of Eren and tightening the wrap he was using around his foot. Eren winced at the action but said nothing. “You don’t remember how you hurt yourself?”

“No,” Eren said honestly. His mind flashed back to the dream. Or the night before. It was hard to tell. But even in the dream or memory, he couldn’t ascertain how he’d injured himself. He just suddenly _had_.

It couldn’t have been a _full_  dream because his foot was wrapped up and his window had been open. Hadn’t Levi said something about climbing out his window? And how else would Eren’s foot be wrapped up?

Had there been blood through the house leading from the door to his room? Someone would’ve said something if there had been. Had Levi cleaned it up?

_Don’t be crazy, Levi wasn’t fucking here!_  He shook his head, annoyed with himself. This entire thing was crazy. He’d hurt himself, bandaged himself up and gone to bed. He was fairly sleep-deprived lately, maybe he just didn’t _remember_  doing it. Like selective amnesia or something.

“All done.” Grisha straightened, pulling the latex gloves off his hands and standing with a groan. “It looks pretty bad, so you should stay off it as much as possible.” He threw the gloves and some gauze into a biohazard bag, beginning to clean up the area while Eren tested his foot. The wrap was tight, but hopefully it would help his foot hurt less if he walked on it. Thankfully it was his left foot, otherwise driving would be difficult.

He’d opened his mouth to say something when the doorbell rang. Carla turned from her spot at the sink where she was doing the dishes and frowned.

“Were you expecting someone?” she asked Eren and his father. Both shook their heads and she headed for the entrance while wiping her hands on a dish towel.

Eren had lost his train of thought so he just turned in his chair so he was sitting properly, getting ready to think on what he wanted for breakfast when his mother called out to him. He turned slowly to look at the kitchen door, even though he couldn’t see down the corridor from where he was.

He didn’t know why, but he felt like he was about to get some bad news.

Hesitating, he got to his feet, wincing when he put weight on his bad foot, and hobbled slowly towards the kitchen door. When he reached it, he saw his mother standing at the end of the corridor by the front door.

With Levi.

_Holy shit, Levi was **definitely**  in my house last night... _

“Hi,” Eren said slowly.

“Can we talk?” Levi asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. His eyes shifted to Eren’s mother, and the brunet realized Levi didn’t want her to hear this conversation. Probably for the best, she would just worry.

“Sure, um, let’s—we can go up to my room.” He slowly made his way down the corridor, offering his mother a tight-lipped smile before beginning to ascend the stairs. He heard the front door close behind him and his mother asking if Levi wanted some tea. He declined, insisting he wouldn’t be staying long.

Eren felt like it took way too long to get up the stairs, but once he made it to the top, he hobbled to his room and pushed open the door. He turned to see how far Levi was and jumped when he found him right behind him. He should’ve known. Silent, as usual.

Pushing into his room, he motioned his desk chair while he fell onto his bed, wincing and pulling his injured foot off the ground to relieve some of the pressure.

“How’s your foot?” Levi asked, shutting the bedroom door and moving to Eren’s desk. He leaned back against it instead of sitting, hands still shoved into his pockets. “I did my best to clean it up, but I was worried someone would find me in your room with you passed out and ask what I was doing.”

“So... um...” Eren winced, rubbing the back of his head. “That—last night. That was real?”

Levi watched him carefully, seeming to examine every single line of his face. “How much do you remember about last night?”

“Enough to be embarrassed.”

“You should be more concerned.” Levi scowled, hands coming out of his pockets so he could cross his arms. “I found you wandering out of town at three in the morning in your boxers with a bloody foot. I think it was glass. You walked right through it and didn’t even wake up. Do you have a history of sleep-walking?”

“No,” Eren said quietly, somehow feeling like he was being scolded.

“Do you remember what you were doing? Why you were out there?”

Eren frowned, wracking his brain and scratching the back of his head. “There was a voice. I was in the woods, and there was a voice. It was calling to me, so I followed it. I tried to find it. I was heading towards it when you showed up.”

He suddenly remembered saying Levi smelled good and all the blood in his body immediately tried to take over his face. He yanked hard at the hair on the back of his head to try and stop it from succeeding.

“You were pretty out of it, even after you woke up,” Levi said. When Eren looked over at him again, he found him scowling at the floor, as if it had offended him. His arms were still crossed and he seemed incredibly pensive.

And worried.

Why did he look so worried? He didn’t even really _like_  Eren. Sure, things were better between them, but they were hardly even friends. He didn’t know he warranted that level of concern.

“It’s probably nothing. Just stress or work or something.” Eren shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”

“You wandered over two miles in the middle of the night while fast asleep, I’d say that’s a pretty big deal, Eren.”

Their eyes locked, and for the first time Eren felt something other than fear tugging at his gut. Levi looked scared. He looked like someone who had almost lost a precious object, and Eren couldn’t figure out why.

“Are you going to tell your parents?”

“No, I’d prefer not to,” Eren said quietly. “They’ll just worry.”

Levi rubbed at his mouth, looking at the ground again. Thinking. “Okay. I’ll respect that. But you need to spend the night with someone for the next little while, okay? Can you sleep in your sister’s room?”

“I—maybe?” Eren said, confused.

“Good. Do that. If you sleep-walk again, let me know. I feel like this is important.”

“Important?” Eren repeated slowly.

“Yes, important.” Levi scowled. “Are you still out of it or something? Why aren’t you more concerned? You could’ve gotten hurt. There are wild animals out there, and on top of that, you were in the middle of the road! Someone could’ve run you over!”

“I’m not—it’s just weird! I’m trying to keep my head on straight! I still can’t believe that wasn’t all a dream! How did you even get me up here without my foot bleeding all over the floor?”

“I carried you when you passed out.”

“How did you get out?”

“Through the window.”

“It’s a two-story drop!”

“You got into my house the same way, why is it so strange I could exit yours?”

Eren’s head snapped back, brain stuttering to a halt. “How... How did you know we went through the window?”

Silence.

They stared at one another for a long while, Levi’s eyes beginning to harden and sending shocks of fear through Eren again so that he looked away. He figured Levi had just guessed because it was the only point of entry possible. Why he wasn’t just admitting that, he had no idea.

“Sleep with someone else tonight and don’t let me find you wandering around outside again. It’s dangerous out there.”

“Yes sir,” Eren muttered while Levi headed for the door. He was managing to stomp without making a sound again, just like the last time.

He pulled open the bedroom door, then hesitated before leaving.

Before Eren could say or do anything, Levi was across the room and his hand was on Eren’s cheek, rubbing his palm across his skin and down the side of his neck. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he muttered, then turned and exited the room, shutting the door behind him. Like what he’d just done wasn’t the weirdest thing in the world.

Struggling to get his brain re-started, Eren fell sideways onto his bed and buried his face in his pillow, feeling embarrassment rising again.

_“You smell good.”_

He wanted to die.

* * *

“Eren.”

A loud shout escaped him, the brunet almost falling off the step-ladder he was standing on and he turned to look at the individual standing at the door.

“Will you _please_  stop doing that to me!” he insisted angrily, his heart thumping painfully in his chest. “Seriously! What are you, like, a ninja or something?!”

Levi just stared at him, seeming to be waiting for him to finish his little tirade. Eren himself just placed one hand on his chest, trying to will his heart to calm down. He didn’t like being startled, it wasn’t good for his health.

“What are you even doing here?” Eren asked, turning back to what he’d been working on. Reiner had restocked the candy when the shipment had come in and the idiot never put things away properly in the storage room. That meant Eren had to clean everything up for him or else inventory nights were a real bitch.

“I was checking on you. Thomas said you were back here.”

“I’m fine,” Eren muttered, feeling embarrassment threatening to rise, blood slowly creeping up the back of his neck. He forced himself to think of something else, _anything_  else, to avoid having Levi realize he was still mortified about the other night.

Not to mention the whole face-touching thing. That was still weird.

“No more incidents?”

“Not that I know of.” Eren turned to Levi, leaning one arm against the shelf. “Why do you care, anyway?”

“Care?”

“Yeah. Like—why does it matter to you?”

Levi’s gaze hardened at that and Eren took it as his cue to look somewhere else. He’d gotten really good at knowing when the sick feeling of fear was going to rise based on what Levi’s eyes looked like. It was weird, but it was like he had some kind of intensity dial in his brain that allowed him to turn the fear he generated in other people up and down. He tended to always have it at the highest setting, but occasionally with Eren, it would be lower down and the brunet could stand to look him in the eye without getting completely freaked out.

“I’m not allowed to care about someone who was wandering down the road at three in the morning?” Levi finally said while Eren was looking at a spot over his shoulder.

“No, you are, it’s just... I don’t know.” Eren shrugged. “I figured you still hated me or something.”

“I never hated you.”

Eren gave him a look. “Really? Even after I broke into your house and Jean and I were convinced you were a serial killer?”

“I never said I wasn’t pissed at you for being a little shit.” Levi crossed his arms and leaned back against the edge of the propped open door. It shifted slightly when he did so, but it held his weight adequately.

“Right.” Eren just rubbed at his arm then turned back to what he was doing. He wasn’t trying to be rude, he just didn’t know what to say. Levi was always so hot and cold, it confused him. Not to mention what had been happening of late was a little weird.

He’d been noticing Levi hanging around a lot lately. Like, a _lot_. The sleepwalking incident was just a coincidence, but two nights ago Eren had been leaving the house to meet up with Jean around midnight and had found Levi’s truck parked across the street. He hadn’t thought much of it, thinking maybe Levi was around visiting a neighbour, but when he’d left Jean’s place a few hours later to head back home, the truck had magically been moved from his house to Jean’s. As if Levi were following him.

He’d texted Connie once he’d gotten in his truck to ask if he’d noticed when Levi got there, since he and Sasha were on Jean’s roof as per usual, but Connie just insisted he had better things to do than keep track of Eren’s boyfriend. Eren decided then and there that he was going to make Connie suffer for being an asshole.

On top of that, he still had those weird feelings of being watched while alone at work late at night, and more than once he’d turned and noticed Levi’s truck parked in the lot. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he always seemed to just... be around. He obviously didn’t mean him any harm, considering he could’ve hurt him easily the night he’d found him wandering down the road in the middle of the night, but it was still weird and creepy.

Eren tried not to think about it too much, mostly because he felt self-centered when he did. It wasn’t like Levi was _following_  him or _stalking_  him or anything. Just... coincidences. Besides, he’d only noticed Levi around since the sleepwalking incident so if anything, maybe he was just worried and keeping an eye on him because Eren didn’t want to tell his parents.

Though he seemed to be _touching_  him a lot lately. Not like, sexually or uncomfortably, but just... he’d brush his fingers across Eren’s arm when the brunet passed him, or would let one hand rub along Eren’s back if they were beside each other. And, of course, the face thing that had happened that one time. That had been the first time Levi had really touched him like that, but now he seemed to be doing it all the time.

“You sure you’re okay?” Levi asked, making Eren turn once more.

“I’m good. Tired, but fine. I promise.”

Levi hesitated, watching him carefully. It looked like he was going to say something, then seemed to think better of it and pushed himself off the door. Eren heard a small clicking sound and opened his mouth to tell Levi to grab the door but it shut before he managed it, one hand held out to Levi as if trying to grab for him.

“Shit,” Eren whined, Levi giving him a weird look while he climbed off the step-ladder.

Wandering to the door and motioning Levi aside, he began to bang on it loudly. “Thomas! Thomas, can you hear me?!”

“What are you doing?” Levi asked slowly, as if worried Eren had lost his mind.

“The door is broken, it locks from the outside,” Eren informed him, still banging on the door. It was making his fist hurt, but he didn’t let up. It wasn’t that Eren was scared of small places, but it still made him uncomfortable to be locked in the room. Especially with Levi.

His brain ever so helpfully reminded him of the fact that he had told Levi he smelled good and he instantly felt blood rushing to his face again. He began banging harder on the door.

“Calm down,” Levi insisted. He came up beside Eren, hand brushing along his lower back before motioning for him to move aside, then grabbed the doorknob. He twisted it, then turned it back the other way. He tugged on the door, then pushed it, then rattled the knob a bit more.

Eren crossed his arms, a little annoyed that Levi didn’t trust him to know the logistics of a storage room he’d literally played in as a child. He’d grown up in this store, he knew everything about it, and Levi was _not_  getting that door open.

The more he tried, the more frustrated Eren became. Was he really _that_  dense?

“It won’t open, don’t you think I’ve tried that before?” Eren asked irritably, shoving Levi aside much more forcefully than the other had done to him. “Thomas has claustrophobia, the last time we both got stuck in here I almost broke my arm trying to get the door open before he had a complete mental breakdown.”

Slapping his hand palm-flat against the door now, he started calling to Thomas again, alternating between banging with his fist and thumping with the palm of his hand. It took Thomas almost three minutes to appear, pulling open the door for them and poking his head in.

“Locked in again?”

“Levi’s fault,” Eren muttered, pushing out of the room and giving himself a little shake. His shoulders felt tense from his brief stint locked in a room with Levi. He was thankful Thomas was around or things would’ve been _really_  bad.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he wandered towards the front of the store and froze at who he found there.

“Annie.”

She didn’t look happy with him, which made sense considering he’d bailed on their last few outings. He tugged at the hair on the back of his head, taking a slow breath and then walked the rest of the steps forward.

“Hey. How, um, how are you?”

“Your mother said you were here and that you’re off in ten minutes. I came by to steal you before someone else does. You owe me a movie.”

Eren opened his mouth to answer but the words died in his throat when his phone went off, ringing loudly in the silence of the store. It sounded like nobody was moving, everyone just standing exactly where they were, waiting to see what Eren was going to do.

“I—just... one second,” he muttered, avoiding Annie’s gaze while sticking his hand in his pocket and pulling his phone out. He checked the caller ID, hesitated, then answered, turning his back on Annie.

“Can we talk later?”

_“Dude, you need to get home right now. Mikasa just fucking went crazy on Armin! **Armin** , Eren! No one goes crazy on him, he’s like a gooey cinnamon roll everyone loves, and she just tore him to shreds! Bail on Thomas, he can finish up without you!”_

His mouth opened. Closed. His hand tightened around the phone. He couldn’t let this go unchecked, but he was also risking a lot concerning his friendship with Annie. The thing that sucked is that he knew if he had to make a choice... he knew who would lose.

“I’ll be right there.”

He hung up, hand tightening around the phone. He could see Thomas and Levi down the aisle. Thomas was rubbing at something on the floor with his shoe, hands in his pockets and gaze locked on the tile beneath his feet. Levi just stood with his arms crossed, watching him. He seemed to be relaxing exponentially the longer he stood there, as if the call had been a concern to him and something that had just happened had calmed him.

Eren didn’t feel calm, personally. He remembered Annie’s comment about being on thin ice, and he was fairly certain he was about to start jumping on it like a trampoline, waiting to see how long before it broke.

Turning to his friend, her expression hadn’t changed but he could tell her jaw was locked and her blue eyes seemed colder than usual.

“I gotta go,” he whispered, avoiding her gaze. “Something came up. At home. I can’t—”

“Save it.” Annie’s eyes narrowed. “Just fucking save it.”

Uncrossing her arms, she turned her back on him and slammed angrily out of the store, managing to do so without breaking the glass door the way Levi had. Eren rubbed the back of his head with a sigh, then glanced over his shoulder before muttering to Thomas that he had to go and he’d pay him back for this later.

Then he ran from the store to hurry home.

* * *

Eren didn’t know why he thought this would be a good idea. He wasn’t exactly an idea man, so he should’ve figured this wasn’t a good idea since it had come from his brain. He’d just wanted to help, but helping only worked if he didn’t completely suck at it. Which he seemed to.

Shifting slightly on the seat behind the till, he glanced over his shoulder at Armin, who was still sitting on the back counter looking dejected while scrolling through something or another on his phone.

The fight the previous night had been... explosive. He didn’t know what had started it, but he sure knew what had ended it. Namely Mikasa swinging her fist and clocking Eren right in the eye. She’d been horrified by what had happened, but she hadn’t apologized to him, or to Armin.

Or to Jean, whom she’d kneed in the groin at some point before Eren had arrived home.

He still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. Apparently Mikasa had become incredibly agitated all of a sudden, had insisted something was wrong with _someone_ —but didn’t seem to want to share who—and had promptly began beating on Jean physically and Armin verbally to let her leave the house. It was so incredibly out of character for her that no one had known what to do.

As soon as Eren had gotten home, she’d punched him in the eye the second he’d walked in the door and then had sequestered herself in her room for the duration of the evening. Armin and Jean had gone home, and Eren had spent a better part of the night trying to convince Mikasa to come out of her room.

Eventually, he gave up and went to bed. The next morning, she had already gone to work by the time he woke up, and he’d left for the night shift at the store before she’d come home. He hadn’t wanted to visit her at work, in case things escalated once more, but he’d been hoping she’d drop by the store.

She didn’t.

By nine, the sad texts from Armin had become too much and he’d told the blond to just come by the store so they could talk and clear the air a bit. That had been a mistake, because now Armin was just being miserable in person, and that was even worse because Eren hated sad Armin. He wanted to make him feel better but had no idea how.

Licking his lips, he chewed on the inside of his cheek before turning to Armin again, opening his mouth to speak when the door opened. He turned to it and felt his stomach drop when he saw Annie walking in. He really didn’t have time for Annie right now.

Just as he was about to say something, he stopped when he saw who walked in behind her, wondering if he’d just entered an alternate dimension or something.

“Mikasa,” he said, standing slowly and eying her, then Annie. “What are you... doing here?”

“I need to talk to Armin.” She was avoiding his gaze, which made sense considering he had a nice shiner from the hit he’d gotten.

“Um...” Eren turned to look at Armin. He was looking at Mikasa, phone still in his hand. He shot a look at Eren and then slid off the counter, wandering slowly towards the door. He and Mikasa exited the store and the door shut behind them.

Leaving Eren alone with someone he was fairly sure wanted to murder him. He shifted his weight uncomfortably, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Nice eye,” Annie commented.

He nodded, still shifting his weight. “Yeah. She caught me off guard.”

“Good. Means I don’t have to punch you myself for yesterday.”

One hand left his pocket to scratch at the back of his head, Eren wincing. “Annie, I’m really sorry. I would’ve gone with you, but—”

“I know. Jean called me last night. It’s why I went to get her, I needed Brainiac to stop moping.”

“Right.”

Silence.

His brain tried to work on things to say, a way to more accurately show her how sorry he was, but before he even managed it, the door opened and Levi walked in.

The older man stood in the doorway, as he often did, staring intently at Annie. She didn’t look scared, but she avoided his gaze, meaning Mikasa really _was_  the only person in the area who wasn’t intimidated by Levi on a regular basis.

“Hey,” Eren said, trying to ease the tension. He didn’t know what Levi’s problem was with Annie, but it seemed to mirror Mikasa’s and he didn’t get it. None of his friends seemed to like her.

Levi turned to look at him and Eren saw him stiffen. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong but Levi just strode across the entrance and reached over the counter, both hands on Eren’s cheeks and yanking his face forward.

“What happened?”

“What?”

“Your _eye_ , Eren! What happened?”

“Nothing, it was an accident.” He reached up and grabbed Levi’s wrists, pulling his hands away. His skin felt hot. Really hot. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned. He reached forward to touch his forehead but barely managed it before Levi jerked back a step. “Levi, I think you have a fever.”

“I’m fine,” he barked, turning to glare at Annie. “Don’t the people in this town have jobs? Why are you here so late?”

“Why are you?” she asked back defiantly.

“I’m a writer, my job is whenever I want it to be.”

“But you _do_  have the daytime shift tomorrow,” Eren reminded him slowly. “I mean, I know it’s only ten to five, but it’s late. Plus, you seem sick, you should—”

“Where’s the peanut butter?”

Eren sighed. “What?”

“Peanut butter.” Levi enunciated every syllable, reverting to how he used to be when they’d first met.

“Aisle seven.” Eren waved in its general direction and Levi disappeared silently, like always. Sighing, he turned back to Annie, who looked livid, as if this had all been _his_  idea.

“Annie, I—”

She didn’t even wait for him to finish. She just turned on her heel and walked out of the store. Eren groaned and fell into his chair, covering his face with both hands. Why was this happening to him? All he wanted was for everyone to get along, but all his friends seemed to hate each other.

_Well, at least one good thing happened tonight,_ he decided, rubbing his face and turning to look out the window. Armin and Mikasa were sitting on the hood of Mikasa’s car, seeming to have a really deep and meaningful conversation. He smiled at the sight, glad that whatever had been going on with them was now resolved. He didn’t know that he would’ve been able to help Armin feel better so he was glad it had worked out.

He jumped when something fell onto the counter behind him and he turned to see Levi had dropped a jar of peanut butter, a bag of marshmallows, a bag of cheetos and a pack of plastic forks onto the counter.

Eren stared at the items for a few seconds, then shook his head.

“You are so weird.”

* * *

Levi was becoming increasingly more nervous as the days went on. He couldn’t help but worry about what was going to happen when he didn’t camp outside Eren’s house at night to make sure he didn’t go wandering off. The only time he felt comfortable was when Eren was working because at least then he was awake. When he slept, Levi didn’t like it.

While there hadn’t been any other incidents over the past few days, the tenseness in Levi’s shoulders wouldn’t dissipate. He kept feeling like something was wrong, something was going to happen. Like he would let his guard down just once and stay home, and then wake up the next morning to find Eren gone. He hated that feeling. So fucking much.

It was why he was camped out outside Eren’s house, just as he had been for the past few nights since he’d been sleepwalking. He kept hoping nothing would happen, and so far, nothing had. Save for that one night Eren had left the house at an ungodly hour to go and visit his Horse, everything was always quiet.

He was fairly certain Eren had spotted him that one time, too, but he didn’t let it bother him. He didn’t care if Eren started feeling stalked because honestly, Levi _was_  stalking him at this point. And not even because he wanted to, it was like an uncontrollable urge to ensure Eren was safe. He couldn’t leave him alone, he always had to know where he was, who he was with, what he was doing.

His phone rang and he glanced at it in the passenger seat.

Erwin.

Reaching out, he picked it up and answered, putting it to his ear.

“What?”

_“Where are you? I tried you at home.”_

“I’m out.” Levi leaned back in his seat, eyes still on the house.

_“It’s two in the morning.”_

“Exactly, why are you calling me so late?”

Silence for a few seconds. Then, _“You’re watching Eren again.”_

A statement, not a question. He didn’t deem it worthy of a response. He just shifted his gaze from the house to the sky, eyes on the moon. It made his skin crawl and he forced his eyes back to the house.

_“Levi, this isn’t normal. You can’t just act like this isn’t a big deal. Something is going on with you.”_

“Thanks for the pep talk.”

Erwin didn’t even sigh on the other end. Levi figured he was used to this by now, after all these years. Instead, he was silent for a moment, as if weighing his words carefully before speaking them.

_“I’m coming out tomorrow night. Is that going to be a problem?”_

“You can do what you want,” Levi said, his eyes catching some form of movement through one of the hall windows on the first floor. He straightened instantly, hand tightening on the phone. He heard his screen crack and loosened his grip.

He stared hard at the front door, waiting for something to happen, and praying it wouldn’t.

The door opened, and the second he saw Eren, he knew. The last time he’d left the house conscious, he’d been wearing clothes. This time, he was in his boxers.

“I’ll call you back.” He threw his phone aside without bothering to hang up. He could still hear Erwin speaking when he climbed out of the car and shut the door, jogging across the street to stop Eren at the bottom of his driveway. He was barefoot again, the gauze around his injured foot browning due to the dirt and grime on the driveway. His eyes were open, but they looked glazed over and unfocussed.

“Eren.”

The brunet didn’t react and began to walk past him. Levi gently took his arm, forcing him to stop. He’d been reading up on sleepwalking, and while it wasn’t dangerous to wake a sleepwalker, it wasn’t recommended. He understood Eren’s reaction a little more the last time after having woken him. This time, he just wanted to get him back to his room without anything happening.

“Eren, you’re going the wrong way,” he said quietly, leaning closer to him and still holding his arm. “You need to go back inside.”

“No,” Eren said, the word slurred and drawn out. “I have to go. I need to go there.”

“Go where?” Levi asked, tightening his hold on Eren’s arm when it looked like he was about to take a step. “Eren, where are you going?”

“The voice.”

“What voice?”

“I need to go to the voice. It’s calling me.”

Levi leaned closer to him, lips at Eren’s ear. “There’s no voice, Eren,” he said clearly and with conviction. “It’s not real. Let’s go back inside.”

“I have to go. I have to find the voice.” Eren started to take a step again and Levi yanked him back once more, standing in front of him.

“Eren, listen to me.” His grip tightened and he thought maybe the pain was registering because Eren flinched and pulled at his arm. Levi loosened his grip so he didn’t break it by accident. “You need to go back inside. Whatever you hear isn’t real.”

When the brunet said nothing, Levi took a step closer to him and released his arm entirely, turning him around by the shoulders and pushing him lightly towards the house. Eren obeyed, beginning to walk. He paused at the porch steps and Levi cursed before giving up and doing as he’d done the last time.

Shifting in front of Eren, he grabbed one of his wrists and pulled Eren so that he bent at the middle, his stomach against Levi’s shoulder so he carried him in a fireman hold.

Turning easily and walking up the porch steps, he manoeuvred them into the house and shut the front door, locking it behind him. Heading silently up the stairs, he made it to the second floor without anyone spotting him and moved into Eren’s room. He shut his door for good measure and then dropped Eren onto his own bed. The other man bounced once off the mattress before stilling.

His eyes were closed now and the second he was settled, a soft snore escaped him.

Levi didn’t know that he trusted that too much, but it seemed like his sleepwalking phase had passed for the night.

Sighing, he grabbed at the sheets Eren had kicked off at some point during the night and pulled them up over the other’s body. He looked so innocent now, lying there like nothing was wrong. Like he hadn’t just wandered out of his house while still unconscious.

Levi sat down on the bed beside him, reaching out to fix his hair, then letting one hand slide down the side of his face and along his neck. When he realized what he was doing, he scowled and pulled his hand back, annoyed at himself.

He watched Eren’s sleeping face for a few seconds, then leaned down, lips hovering over the brunet’s. It took almost all the willpower he possessed to stop himself, but he managed it and pulled back, turning away and rubbing at his mouth.

The dreams were really fucking with him. He and Eren weren’t like that, and he knew it, but it didn’t stop him from _wanting_  things to be like that.

Shaking his head, he let out a slow breath and stood, moving to the desk and pulling the chair out. He turned it so it faced the bed and sat down, intent on watching Eren until he heard others in the house stirring.

No way was he risking the moron climbing out the window and breaking his neck. He didn’t think he would survive anything happening to Eren.

And he still had _no_  idea why.

* * *

Eren rubbed at his face, feeling more exhausted than usual while walking slowly towards the store. He didn’t know what had happened in the night, but he felt like he hadn’t slept at all. He also felt like things had been moved around in his room, but that was crazy so he figured he’d imagined it.

He just didn’t remember his chair being pulled out, or his photo album being out. He hadn’t looked at that thing since graduation years ago, so he didn’t know why he’d have it sitting on his desk. He figured maybe Mikasa had been looking for something.

He’d made it halfway to the front of the store when he stopped and let out a groan. He’d forgotten about mailing something off for his mother. She’d given him one of those poster tubes the night before to put in his truck specifically so that he wouldn’t forget to mail it before work.

Eren had forgotten.

“Whatever,” he decided, beginning to shuffle forward once more. “One more day won’t hurt.”

Wandering into the store—early, since he worried Levi would snap at him again—he turned to wave at Levi and saw him shifting his weight anxiously, clearly ready to head home.

“Gimme a minute to get organized, then you can go,” he promised, moving to the back and pushing open the door to the office. Reiner turned to him while counting out a new till and winced.

That gave Eren pause. “What?” he asked slowly.

“Uh, your dad came by earlier. He left this for you.” He held out a folded piece of paper. That was never a good thing. If it was bad news, his dad always wrote him a note instead of texting him. Bracing himself before opening it, Eren sighed and read what was written.

_Eren,_   
_Nick called about the last shipment; he said there was a mistake in the manifest and that some of the stores were charged more product than they actually got. He needs us to do an inventory and compare the numbers with our records for the week to make sure we weren’t in that batch._   
_I know people won’t be happy, but you need to run inventory tonight. The sooner this is done, the better. Put a note up and close up shop. Reiner can’t stay so ask Levi to help, I’ll pay him double for it._   
_Sorry kiddo._   
_Dad._

“Oh sure, leave _me_  with the angry assholes,” he muttered to his dad, folding the page and rubbing his face.

“Sorry dude. I’d stay and help, but I gotta go. I don’t want to be on Annie’s bad side. I don’t have a death wish.” He stood and hoisted his bag, giving Eren a very clear “like _some_  people” look.

“Yeah, I know, I’m a dead man,” Eren muttered, falling into the vacated seat and rooting through the drawers for a fresh piece of paper so he could write out a sign. “See you later, Reiner.”

“Bye.”

Eren worked on writing out the note and then stood, pushing through the office door and heading for the front of the store. He turned to Levi while walking past the till, noting he looked red and feverish. He almost looked like he was sweating. It made him wonder if he still hadn’t gotten over whatever bug he’d obviously caught from the other night.

“Anyone in the store?”

“No.”

“Good.” Eren walked up to the door and locked it, flipping the close/open sign they only ever changed to ‘close’ on inventory nights. He grabbed tape off the counter and began taping the sign to the door just as Levi came out from behind the till.

“What are you doing?”

“Supplier fucked up and dad asked me to do inventory tonight. Said he’d pay you double if you helped.” Eren put the tape back and moved behind the counter to get the scanners and cables set up.

“What?!” Levi all but shouted. “I can’t stay, I have plans!”

“He’ll pay you double,” Eren repeated, beginning to unravel one of the cables while heading for the storage room in the back. “You can reschedule one night, can’t you?”

“You didn’t even ask me, you just _assumed_  I would stay!” Levi seemed to become more and more agitated as time passed. “Call Reiner back, _he_  can stay! I have to go!”

“Levi, stop being a dick for two seconds,” Eren insisted, propping open the storage room door and throwing the end of the cable into it before heading back to the front for one of the scanners. “It won’t kill you to help me out.”

“I’m not staying!” Levi roared.

It made all the hairs on Eren’s body stand on end and he actually felt physically ill with how scared he’d felt in that moment. He forced himself to brush it off, though he didn’t quite manage it, and he bent down to grab one of the scanners.

When he stood and turned, Levi was _right there_ , in his face. Well, almost, since he was a little shorter than him.

“I’m leaving,” he said, much more calmly than seconds before.

“Fine, leave,” Eren snapped. “Leave then if you can’t give up _one_  night of your life to help me out with something. It’s not like I’m happy about this, either! People are gonna be knocking on the door all night insisting they need their fucking pudding or whatever, and the last time we had an unscheduled inventory, we got egged and TP’d and who had to clean that up? Me!” Eren shoved past him, heading for the storage room again. “I’m fucking pissed, too.”

He didn’t hear Levi following, but he never did, and he wasn’t willing to turn around to check. He just walked into the storage room and bent down to plug the scanner into the end of the cable.

“Eren, I’m sorry,” Levi said, suggesting he had followed him into the room. “Any other night, _any_  night, I would stay. But I just—I can’t tonight. I can’t stay. I have to go.”

“Whatever.”

“Eren—”

“Just go, then!”

“Will you fucking _listen_  to me!” Levi yanked at the cable hard and the scanner flew out of Eren’s hand. The action caused the entire thing to shoot out of the storage room, clipping the side of the door. There was an ominous creak and Eren’s mouth opened a split second before the door slammed shut.

With the only two people in the store inside.

“Fuck!” Eren shouted, rushing past Levi to the door and grabbing the knob, as if pure willpower would have it magically be fixed and open accordingly. “Fucking hell! Terrific! Great! Now we’re fucking _stuck_  in here all night! Dad’s at work and the door’s locked!” He rounded on Levi. “Good job, asshole!”

His angry tirade faded quickly while he stared at Levi. He hadn’t moved since the door had closed, standing frozen in the storage room with his hands clenched and his entire body tense. It looked like he was in shock.

Eren frowned. “Levi?” He started to reach out one hand to touch him but before he could, Levi practically threw him into one of the shelving units that adorned one side of the room and hurled himself at the door.

He slammed his shoulder into it hard, denting the metal after a few hits. Eren had no fucking idea what was happening aside from Levi losing his shit so he just scrambled back a little and almost tripped over one of the boxes on the floor.

“Come on! Come _on_!” Levi shouted, grabbing at the knob and beginning to jostle it urgently. “Don’t do this, no! Not today! No!” He began slamming his shoulder into the door again, then stopped so he could brace his hands against the door and shove hard. His entire body was coated in sweat, and Eren could see veins and tendons popping out along his skin.

“Come on!” he shouted again, slamming one angry fist against the door before pulling back and reaching into his pocket. He pulled out his phone, turning to face Eren while holding it up to the ceiling, as if hoping changing its location would provide a signal.

It wouldn’t. That was the first thing Eren had tried the first time he’d gotten locked in this God forsaken room.

“No, no, come on.” He shook the phone angrily, as if that would help. “Come on! Shit!”

Eren jumped when Levi hurled the phone at the floor, the screen smashing and the case breaking open, pieces of the phone scattering across the floor.

“Give me your phone!” Levi demanded, holding his hand out.

“I—”

“Now!”

Eren hastened to pull it out of his pocket, holding it out to Levi. It was snatched so violently that pain shot through Eren’s hand and wrist. He brought it back to cradle against his own chest, watching Levi repeat the same actions he had with his own phone. When he received the same results, he cursed and hurled the phone back at Eren like a fucking baseball player throwing a pitch. It hit Eren hard in the chest, knocking the wind out of him, but he managed to catch it before it fell and broke, replacing it in his pocket.

“What is your major malfunction?!” Eren snapped angrily, rubbing at his chest while Levi turned to the door again and raked both hands through his hair. “Will you calm down? You can survive one night in here with me, someone will let us out in the morning.”

“I can’t! I _can’t_!” Levi shouted, back still to him. “I need to get out of here!” He began slamming his shoulder into the door, pushing hard, punching, slapping.

“Look, it’s not ideal for either of us, but we’ll survive. Mom’ll be here for the morning shift, she’ll let us out.”

“You don’t _get_  it!” Levi shouted, rounding on him. His eyes seemed to be glowing again, shining brightly in the small room. “I can’t _be_  in here right now! Not with you!”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Eren demanded, but Levi ignored him and began trying to break his shoulder again, continuing to slam into the door.

Rolling his eyes, Eren just muttered a “Whatever,” then sat down on one of the boxes, pulling his phone out. He didn’t have a signal, which he already knew, which also meant no internet. But he had some movies on his phone, he figured he could just sit there and watch one. Which he did, opening _How To Train Your Dragon_  and watching the whole movie, barely able to hear the dialogue over Levi’s constant attempts to break his own arm and shouting angrily at the door.

He’d have assumed Levi was claustrophic if he didn’t know what that looked like, but he’d seen Thomas’ reaction to being locked in a small space and that wasn’t what Levi was experiencing. Whatever was wrong with him was something different.

Eren mostly ignored him, figuring he’d tire himself out eventually, but he was now halfway through _Jurassic World_ and still Levi fought with the door.

Chris Pratt’s character had just gotten saved by Bryce Dallas Howard’s character when Levi finally stopped. Eren looked up at him and saw he’d gone absolutely still once more.

“What time is it?” Levi asked, his voice sounding weird. It sounded rough, worn. It sounded wrong.

Pausing the movie and tapping the screen so he could check the time, he said, “Almost nine.”

Levi began breathing hard and Eren frowned when he realized he was shaking.

“Sun’s almost down,” he said, voice still sounding weird. “It’ll be gone soon.”

“So?” Eren asked, not following. He shoved his phone into his pocket since Levi seemed to have stopped his fight against the door and would maybe provide some company now.

“You need to get away from me.”

“Say what?”

“Get as far away as you can,” Levi turned his head to look at him out of the corner of his eye. It looked... weird. Different. “Get away now.”

“We’re locked in a small space, there isn’t exactly much room for me to—”

Eren cut himself off when Levi let out a cry, falling forward into the door with a grunt. He was breathing hard and reached back with both hands to grab the collar of his shirt, tugging it up over his head while kicking off his shoes.

“Whoa, what the fuck are you doing?!” Eren leapt to his feet, moving forward to grab at him.

“Get back!” Levi snapped, voice garbled. When he looked at him over his shoulder again, his eyes had changed colour from blue to yellow. Then he clenched them shut and cried out again, slamming one fist against the door.

His shirt had fallen to the floor, landing on his shoes. Eren noticed he wasn’t wearing any socks. Levi allowed himself a second to breathe hard, and then he was undoing his pants, yanking them down. He wasn’t wearing anything underneath and was kicking the pants off from around his ankles while Eren just stared at him with his mouth hanging open.

“Levi, what the fuck! What are you doing?!” he demanded, watching Levi brace himself against the door. Every now and then he would punch at it or cry out, but mostly he just stayed there with his head bowed.

After about ten seconds, he went completely ape-shit, beginning to bang and claw at the door, screaming for it to fucking open and slamming against it hard.

“Levi, what the _fuck_  is your problem?!”

With one final shout of anger, another cry of pain followed immediately after and he fell to his knees, fingers curling against the ground. Eren opened his mouth to speak when the words died in his throat.

Something was moving beneath the skin of his back. It was like... snakes were shifting back and forth beneath his skin. Levi screamed and then there was a... ripping sound. Like paper splitting, but it wasn’t paper that split.

Fur, dark and coarse, sprouted through the skin of Levi’s back, another inhuman shout escaping him while he pounded against the floor. Bones cracked and skin shifted, Levi’s body changing right before Eren’s eyes.

He wanted to look away, especially when he knew the cries escaping Levi were cries of pain, but he couldn’t manage it. He just watched with almost sick fascination while Levi’s skin disappeared beneath thick fur, his hands and feet shrank and became animalistic, and his bones and muscles shifted to accommodate the change into a very different form.

The change seemed to last for hours but couldn’t have been more than five minutes. Once it was done, Levi panted harshly, his back raised and the fur seeming to stand on end. Then, he turned to look at Eren, yellow eyes flashing dangerously.

All the blood drained from the brunet’s face.

_Oh,_  Eren’s brain supplied helpfully in a tiny voice. _**That’s**  his problem. _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go, you thirsty bastards! Now you know one out of five mysteries! :P <3


	8. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To make sure I don't get anyone's hopes up, this is _not_ an A/B/O fic. This is just a normal, run-of-the-mill Werewolf fic. 
> 
> Also, fic trivia, this entire beast of a fic started just because I wanted to write a scene where Levi and Eren were stuck in a storage room together with one of them having a panic attack. It was meant to be a one-shot. Instead it turned into this. How is this my brain? |D 
> 
> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Harry Potter (c) J.K. Rowling  
> Twilight (c) Stephenie Meyer  
> True Blood (c) Charlaine Harris

That was how Eren found himself on the floor, back pressed against the wall and face turned away from a large wolf bearing down on him. He felt ready to be sick, and knew he was seconds away from dying. He suddenly understood a lot more about Levi. Things suddenly made sense.

Why he was always so quiet. Obviously, as a wolf, he had predatory instincts. Predators were quiet, they were stealthy. Levi had picked that up from his wolf side.

Why looking him in the eye made Eren want to wet himself. It was probably his own survival instincts recognizing that something was different about Levi. That he was a predator. That he was dangerous.

Why he seemed to be able to hear things he shouldn’t have been able to hear. Wolves had amazing hearing, like dogs. He could probably hear more than Eren even realized.

Why he was so unnaturally strong. Eren didn’t know much about wolf strength, but it certainly explained a few things either way.

How he knew Eren and Jean had broken into his house; hell, how he’d known it was them at all. Wolves, like dogs, had an incredible sense of smell. He’d obviously walked into his house, smelled their scent, and followed it to the source. It was how he’d known Eren had walked into the cage.

Why he’d gotten so angry the one time Eren had been late. Why he’d gotten so angry today. It was obviously a full moon. He’d been trying to get home.

Home. Where the cage was. It wasn’t for a book, that was just a coincidence. It was where Levi sequestered himself when he turned. It was obvious he wasn’t in control of himself, or he wouldn’t have been so terrified.

Eren could tell that Levi had been worried about what he’d do to him. If it was about his secret being out, he would’ve just sat Eren down and explained before it happened. The fact that he didn’t and just spent the past few hours trying to get out of the room proved that he had absolutely no control over his actions.

And now, Eren was about to die. He was stuck in a room with a wolf, and he was going to die. He couldn’t stop it, and he couldn’t do anything to get Levi away from him. When the sun rose and Levi turned back into himself, he would be locked in this room with Eren’s corpse, with no way out. He would be arrested. He would go to jail. But if he was in jail, he would turn again eventually, at the next full moon.

And then what? People would experiment on him, torture him.

Kill him.

“Levi,” he said in a low voice, the other’s growls close. He could feel the wolf’s breath on his face, hot and foul, and he clenched his hands into fists.

He heard Levi’s jaw open, knew his face was about to get ripped off, and clenched his eyes shut more tightly. Then, he froze, because the sound that escaped Levi sounded surprisingly similar to the sound that escaped dogs when they yawned.

A paw landed on his stomach and he let out a harsh breath when the wolf climbed over his lap, moving to Eren’s other side. He didn’t want to open his eyes, he was afraid of what he’d find. But seconds passed, and still nothing happened. So, heart slamming against his chest, he steeled himself and peeked open one eye. The wolf was sitting right beside him, watching him with light yellow eyes. One paw came up, making Eren flinch, but all it did was fall onto Eren’s lap and begin pawing at it. After a good ten seconds, Eren slowly shifted, flattening out his legs so they weren’t bent at the knee. This was obviously what the wolf was waiting for because it half climbed into Eren’s lap and plopped down, upper body resting on his legs. The animal stretched loudly, yawned again, and then rested its muzzle on its own front legs, tail flicking once before stilling.

Eren just stared down at the beast in his lap, hands raised and hovering, breathing still sharp and fast.

“Levi?” he asked carefully. The wolf didn’t react other than one ear twitching. Eren could see that its eyes were closed, its breathing slow and steady.

It took almost ten minutes for Eren’s own breathing to slow, and his heart to stop thumping against his ribs. Finally, he slowly let his hands fall lightly on the wolf’s back and head. Yellow eyes opened and shifted to look up at him, but it just watched him for a few seconds, let out a small huff, and then closed them once more. It yawned again, settled more comfortably, and seemed to be attempting to sleep.

The fur was soft beneath Eren’s trembling fingers. He hadn’t expected it to be, it had looked very coarse. The softness seemed to be helping him calm down, eyes watching the wolf’s face while he slowly began to run one hand along its back. It didn’t react, suggesting the action was fine. He still didn’t think this was Levi, though. Levi wouldn’t have scared him like that at the beginning if he were in control.

He still wasn’t sure he knew what was going on. His brain insisted that he was batshit crazy right now. Levi was a Werewolf? That was fucking impossible, Werewolves didn’t exist. They were the things of myths and legends. They were fabrications of man used in movies and TV shows like _Harry Potter_  and _Twilight_  and _True Blood_. They were the monsters parents used to scare their children when they misbehaved. Werewolves couldn’t be fucking real.

And yet, here one lay, right in his lap. One that he had personally seen transforming right before his eyes less than half an hour ago. One who’d been panicked and scared and in an extremely large amount of pain.

Levi was a Werewolf. He was a real, actual, bonafide fucking Werewolf.

“I’m completely crazy,” Eren whispered to himself.

Apparently him speaking wasn’t appreciated, because the wolf growled and he immediately shut up, hand stilling in the other’s fur.

Eren was still so terrified by what had happened that he didn’t think he would fall asleep that night.

He was wrong. He passed out at five in the morning, thoughts plagued by transforming people and hungry wolves.

He didn’t look like red riding hood, but fuck did he ever feel like her.

* * *

The light seemed weird. He knew it was light out, because he could see it through his eyelids, but it felt almost subdued, as if it were raining out. Maybe it was overcast, and the sun was being blocked off. But usually it didn’t look like this.

He knew it would be easy to figure out the time, all he had to do was open his eyes and crawl to the edge of the cage where his phone was. But he didn’t want to. He was comfortable and tired.

And in pain.

It didn’t get any easier. Every month when this happened, it didn’t get any easier. If anything, the older he got, the more it hurt. The sensation of bones breaking and skin tearing never diminished and he wondered what would happen when he grew old enough for it to be a problem. What would happen at eighty? Hell, what about _sixty_? How would he survive a transformation like this?

Shifting slightly, determined to continue sleeping, he nuzzled his face against the softness beneath his cheek, getting comfortable once more. It took his brain exactly two seconds to remember that he wasn’t in his cage, and he shouldn’t be lying on something so soft.

Then his eyes snapped open.

A sick feeling settled itself in the pit of his stomach. He was staring across a lit room at a dented and banged up metal door. His clothes were in a pile on the floor beside the door, and he could see extended legs, suggesting his head was lying on Eren’s thighs.

The nausea rose and he felt ready to be sick. He couldn’t look at what he’d done to Eren. He was too horrified, too disgusted. All this time worried about something getting him, hurting him, and Levi was the one who’d ended up killing him. He was going to be sick. Eren didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve to spend his final moments locked in a storage room with Levi, being mauled to death.

Levi’s breathing came faster, hatred and self-loathing rising. Other things rising, too. Like the food he’d had in his stomach.

He was screwed this time. He was literally screwed. He was locked in the room with someone he’d killed, it wasn’t like he could talk himself around this one. Not like with Isabelle.

Not like with Eld.

He’d been stupid. Stupid for thinking he could be normal. He’d tried normal in the past, and it never worked out. People around him always died. If they weren’t like him, they died. That was just the reality of his condition. He was a murderer, and the fact that he had no control over his actions at all didn’t make a fucking difference to him. He was a murderer.

One hand clenched in the material of Eren’s jeans, his entire body tense. He knew he had to sit up. Knew he had to look at the damage. He just didn’t want to.

Eren had felt different. Eren was someone he’d wanted to keep around, someone he liked—in many different ways.

He was someone _special_ , even if Levi still didn’t understand why.

And now he was fucking dead. Because of him. He hoped the cops showed up.

He hoped they killed him.

Tightening his grip in the pantleg, he steeled himself to sit up and look when he heard a small snore.

The sound forced Levi to whip up into a seated position, turning his head to look at Eren before even really deciding he wanted to. Blue eyes locked on Eren’s face, which was angled downward with drool trekking from the corner of his mouth to add to the small patch on his shirt. His chest rose and fell slowly, another soft snore escaping him.

_Is he... is he **sleeping**?!_ Levi’s brain was having trouble understanding what he was seeing. No one had _ever_  survived a night with a wolf. No one. Ever. It was something all Werewolves had confirmed whenever Levi met any from other packs.

If a human was around a Werewolf when they turned, when they lost themselves completely, that human was always dead. Super, super dead.

The only exceptions were the ones who were turned, and even then, most of them were also still super, super dead.

No human had ever survived something like this, and the fact that Levi had found himself curled up against Eren with his head on his lap and the moron passed out meant something extremely weird had happened.

How was this possible? How had Eren survived the night enough to fucking _pass out_ and snore like an idiot? This couldn’t be happening. Levi was dreaming. He was dreaming, and he was going to get woken up soon by someone screaming over the fact that he’d murdered the fuck out of Eren. He was going to be covered in blood any second now, he could feel it.

He waited. And waited. And waited some more. Still nothing.

Hesitating slightly, even though he knew doing so was ridiculous, Levi reached out one hand and pressed his fingers to Eren’s neck. He wasn’t imagining the breathing—or snoring. There was a pulse. It was slow and steady, but strong. Eren was legitimately asleep.

“This is impossible,” Levi whispered to himself, shifting so he was on his feet, crouched in front of Eren and leaning closer to him. He inhaled deeply, trying to see if there was something different about him.

Nothing.

Eren smelled like Eren—and Levi. And sweat. And tears, too, as if he’d cried at some point in the night. Probably from fear, not that Levi could blame him.

Levi didn’t even smell any blood. Eren was legitimately—physically—fine.

He didn’t know what to do. How was he supposed to react right now? No one had ever survived this, and he didn’t even know what he was supposed to do, what he was supposed to _say_  to Eren.

His head whipped to the side when he heard gravel crunching outside. A car was approaching, likely Eren’s mother. Levi didn’t know what time it was, but if someone was here, it was obviously a family member. He had to get out of here.

Now.

Shifting away from Eren silently, he hurried back across the room to his clothes, grabbing his jeans and yanking them on. He kept his eyes locked on Eren while he did up his pants, then bent down for his shirt. He was yanking it over his head when he heard the lock click at the front of the store, and Carla calling out to her son. Levi hoped she didn’t wake him, he wanted to get out before Eren regained full consciousness.

Bending down, he pulled on his shoes and then stood at the door, hands braced on either side, listening hard. She was coming closer, still calling Eren’s name. It was loud enough that he was sure a normal human would be able to hear it. Eren stirred behind him with a small groan and Levi grit his teeth, scowling at the door.

“Eren? Honey?” She was in the office next door. Then her footsteps moved to the storage room and he heard the lock click. The second it disengaged, Levi grabbed the handle and threw the door open.

She let out a shout, which startled Eren awake with his own.

“Levi! You scared m—”

“Sorry, I need to go,” he muttered while quickly moving past her and rushing for the front.

“Levi?” Eren. Shit. “Levi, wait!”

He didn’t wait. He just threw open the front door, hearing it slam against the opposite wall but thankfully not breaking. He bolted for his truck, unlocking it quickly with the click of a button and climbing in. He’d slammed the door and jammed the key in the ignition by the time Eren appeared at the entrance of the store, looking dishevelled and half-asleep, but eyes locked on him.

He opened his mouth, probably to shout for him to wait again, but Levi didn’t wait. He slammed the vehicle into reverse and shot out onto the street, cranking the wheel around. Straightening and shifting into drive, he shot forward down the deserted street, heading home.

His heart was pounding in his chest and he was gripping the steering wheel so hard he could feel it protesting. He didn’t know what to do. Should he leave town? Yes, probably. He should pack up and leave immediately. But could he do that? Would he be able to leave? Even now, driving away from Eren, the anxiety of not being close to him was steadily rising. Could he survive leaving town? Would he eventually get used to the feeling of being away from Eren? It would take time, he was sure, but he would probably get over it eventually.

He was still so focussed on what had just happened that he almost missed the turn for his street, slamming on the brakes and twisting the steering wheel. The front of his car bumped up over the sidewalk, but he ignored it and kept driving, making it back onto the road and zooming up the hill to his house. He didn’t slow until he was liable to crash right through his front entrance, then slammed on the brakes and leapt out of the truck, still feeling shaken and agitated. What the fuck?

_What_  the _fuck_?!

How was Eren still _alive_?! Not that he was upset by it, he just didn’t know how to handle this. He’d never had to deal with something like this before. No one aside from other members of his pack knew about Werewolves. Eren was human, and he knew! He _knew_! Who was he going to tell? Shit, people were going to come, they were going to take him and—

“Levi!”

His head shot up and all the blood drained from his face.

Erwin was racing towards him, the front door hanging open and the man leaping down the porch steps, landing silently and with ease.

“Levi, where the hell _were_  you! I was waiting and waiting and you never showed up! I thought something happened! I woke up alone in the cage, where the hell did you go?! What happened?!”

Levi didn’t know what to say. He had absolutely no fucking clue what to tell Erwin right then because he didn’t _know_  what had happened. All he kept replaying in his mind was Eren’s terrified face as Levi had begun transforming, and then his slumbering face the moment he’d woken up. How was this even happening?

Just who the hell _was_  this kid?!

“Levi!” Erwin had grabbed his shoulders, giving him a hard shake. “What. Happened?”

“I was locked in the storage room. At work. With Eren.”

The second the words left his mouth, all the blood drained from Erwin’s face and he cursed, pulling away from Levi and rubbing at his face with both hands. He began to pace, muttering, “Shit, _shit_!” under his breath. He raked both hands through his blond hair, messing it up while doing so and turned back to Levi.

“Okay. Let’s just stay calm and figure this out. For now, we need to get you out of here before people come looking for you. We’ll do whatever we have to do to keep you safe. I’ll call Hanji, we’ll sort everything out and if we have the chance, we’ll swipe the body and—”

“He’s alive.”

Erwin stopped speaking immediately, staring at Levi for a few seconds with something like pity in his features before sighing and rubbing at his face. “Shit. _Shit_! Okay, new plan. We can’t let him go through this in a hospital, we’ll have to get him out of there. Hopefully he survives, but even if he doesn’t, we can’t let this happen around people. Where did you get him? Was it the face like Hanji? Did you bite or scratch him, do you remember? Did you notice?”

“I didn’t.”

“Okay, that’s okay, it doesn’t matter. We’ll just get to him and—”

“No, I didn’t infect him.” Levi felt numb, like he was speaking to Erwin from underwater. Watching Erwin try to make plans, the same way he had back when Isabelle and Eld had died... it was just putting him into a bigger state of shock at the fact that Eren was fine. He was completely and utterly _fine_.

“What-what do you _mean_  you didn’t infect him?” Erwin asked, voice rising. He was very obviously stressed. “Levi, you said he was alive, so obviously he’s going to start to turn whether he survives the change or not! We need to think up a plan!”

“I didn’t bite or scratch him. He’s fine.” Levi felt like he was losing feeling in his hands and feet. “Eren is totally fine.”

“What do you—what do you _mean_  he’s _fine_?!” Erwin demanded, almost screaming now.

He looked deranged, possessed. He looked more terrified than Levi had ever seen him.

“I mean he’s fine. I didn’t fucking kill him, and I didn’t turn him. He’s fine. I-I woke up and he was fine. He was sleeping. Fucking _sleeping_! But there was no blood, and no fever, there was just _nothing_. I turned, and woke up, and he was fine.”

“What do you _mean_  he was fine?!” Erwin demanded again, as if not understanding what Levi was saying. “Humans aren’t just fucking _fine_  after spending a night locked in a storage room with a wolf, Levi! The only people who survive that are the ones who manage to squeeze into a space where we can’t get to them to kill them, but those people always, _always_  turn! Always! Like Hanji! Hanji managed to get away from you, but you still got them in the face! They still _turned_  Levi! Eren can’t just be _fine_!”

“Well he is fine!” Levi shouted, feeling the numbness begin to dissipate. He didn’t like being yelled at, especially not when he was already feeling so stressed. “Eren is fine!”

He shoved past Erwin and entered his house, slamming the door behind him. It reopened half a second later when his friend followed, closing the door as well and rushing after him while Levi headed upstairs.

“Well—what happened?! Did he smell bad? Was he not appetizing? Did he not seem like a threat to you? How did you not kill him or attack him?! That’s impossible, Levi! That’s never happened ever. _Ever_!”

“Don’t you think I know that?!” Levi shouted, rounding on Erwin at the top of the stairs. “Don’t you think I’m more freaked out about this anomaly than _you_  are?! I don’t _know_  what happened! I don’t know why I didn’t hurt him! I don’t _know_ , Erwin! I don’t! And—”

_“No big deal. Totally fine. It’s all good. Just driving up to a Werewolf’s house. Nothing to be scared of.”_

Both of them whipped towards the front door when they heard the words. A car was slowly inching towards the front of the house. The window was down, making Eren’s muttered words easily distinguishable.

“Shit.” Levi rubbed at his mouth and began to insist they pretend they weren’t home but Erwin immediately turned and headed back downstairs. “Erwin! _Erwin_!”

Levi chased after him, but he didn’t manage to stop him before he reached the door. He wrenched it open just as a car door slammed, suggesting Eren had exited his truck. Levi reached the landing as Erwin stomped out of the house and down the porch steps.

“Oh. Uh, hi. I was looking for Levi but I can come back la— _what are you doing_?!”

Erwin had grabbed Eren by the arm and was forcibly dragging him towards the house. Levi looked out the door and saw that Eren had dug his heels into the ground, gripping Erwin’s wrist tightly. All he was doing was probably dislocating his shoulder and forming two plow lines in the dirt. He let out a shout when Erwin yanked him up the steps, walking into the house past Levi after slamming the door and throwing Eren into the living room.

The brunet let out a shout, falling to the ground with a loud groan and then scrambling to his feet, whipping around and raising his fists.

Like a fucking idiot.

Jesus, why was this kid so fucking _stupid_?! Why had he even come here?!

“Don’t break him!” Levi snapped, moving in front of Erwin and shoving him backwards a step to keep some distance between him and Eren. He didn’t like how violent he was being with him, Eren hadn’t done anything aside from not die. He didn’t deserve to be punished for it.

Levi turned when he heard Eren let out a nervous laugh, eyes shifting back and forth between Erwin and Levi.

“I didn’t—know you had company. Probably should’ve just... called.” His voice cracked on the last word and he cleared his throat. “So, yeah, this is... you guys are both staring at me a little bit... I’m uncomfortable and you guys are friends and probably thinking I look good enough to eat and, hey, there’s enough of me to go around so...” He laughed awkwardly. “Why did I say that? I’m gonna just... I’m gonna bounce, if that’s cool. I’ll uh, see you later, yeah?”

“Strip.”

Levi shot a look at Erwin, who had his large, muscular arms crossed over his chest. Eren, for his part, still had his fists raised but looked extremely confused.

“I—what?”

“Did I stutter? Strip. Now.”

Eren didn’t move.

“ _Now_!”

The brunet jumped and immediately kicked off his shoes, unzipping his hoodie and shrugging it off his shoulders before grabbing the front of his shirt and yanking it over his head. He tossed it to the ground on top of the hoodie and quickly began working on his pants.

Levi turned his back on him once more, glaring daggers at Erwin and trying extremely hard to avoid looking at Eren. It wasn’t the first time he’d see him partially dressed, but it felt different somehow. Before, he was more focussed on the sleepwalking. Now, he was more focussed on the way Eren’s skin seemed to be that deliciously tanned everywhere, and how he actually had really defined muscles in his arms, but obviously ate more than he should because he had a little bit of a tummy, but it was still adorably cute and he wanted to jump him right now and just—

Forcing his brain back to safer waters, Levi shifted his gaze to Erwin.

“Do you smell anything?” he muttered, finding it unnecessary to be making Eren strip.

“I don’t, but we need to be sure.”

Levi felt like not being able to smell any blood should be enough, but apparently Erwin disagreed. Sighing, he chanced a glance over his shoulder in time to see Eren yank his pants down and kick them off, hands moving to his boxers before hesitating.

“Am I—is this enough? Do I—can I leave these on?”

Erwin said nothing. He just began to move forward but Levi grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop and narrowing his eyes. Erwin stared right back and after a few long seconds, Levi shifted his gaze away and released his arm. It had been difficult to do so, but he managed. He turned to watch his friend move forward, which caused Eren to stumble backwards. He almost tripped over the end of the couch but managed to catch himself and grab the armrest, moving around behind the couch while watching Erwin. His position made his back to Levi, but the brunet didn’t seem to notice that. He was probably more terrified of Erwin in that moment.

When Eren had managed to move completely around the couch in a circle, Erwin let out an annoyed growl and leapt over the back of it, one hand reaching out and gripping Eren’s chin, twisting his face this way and that, then exploring every inch of his front before forcing him to turn and doing the same to his back.

Levi’s hands clenched into fists while he watched, but for the moment, he didn’t feel like Eren was in any danger so he just kept his eyes glued on what was happening in case he needed to step in. It was a weird thought, having to step in because of Erwin, but he was concerned about Eren right then.

Being done with the overall inspection of skin he could see, Erwin scowled and bent down, Eren letting out a shout when one foot was raised and his sock was yanked off. Then the other. He still had a bandage on his left foot, but Levi knew it was mostly healed by now because he couldn’t smell any blood.

Erwin turned him to face him again, still looking him up and down.

“Off.”

“What?”

“Take them off.” Erwin didn’t wait for him to comply, he just bent down, grabbed Eren’s boxers, and yanked them off.

Eren let out a shout and reached forward, covering himself with both hands while Erwin manhandled him, twisting him around and checking every inch of him. Levi was beside him in a second, shoving Eren back a step so he could stand between them, eyes flashing dangerously at Erwin.

“That’s enough,” he said, voice low and threatening. He could feel Eren shifting uncomfortably behind him, and hear his laboured breathing. He was ten seconds away from freaking out, and Levi didn’t need that right now.

He was worried for Eren’s well-being, of course, but also fairly concerned with Eren’s hands dropping from where they were in front of his crotch. Levi’s pants were already feeling a little tighter than they had been, he didn’t need things getting worse. Not to mention he dreamt about Eren enough as it was, he didn’t need an accurate representation of his dick in his head.

“Nothing,” Erwin said quietly to Levi, eyes flicking upwards to glance at Eren before looking back down at his friend. “He’s got nothing, Levi.”

“Excuse me,” Eren insisted, voice much higher than usual, “but what the _fuck_  is going on?!”

“Get your clothes back on,” Erwin snapped, turning his back on them and rubbing at his mouth. Levi moved forward a step to stay closer to Erwin in case he turned and lunged at Eren.

That proved difficult because he felt Eren shifting closer to him from behind while he grabbed at his clothes. He did his best to ignore him, eyes locking with Erwin’s when the man turned. Levi stared back at him defiantly, the two of them increasing the intensity of their gazes. Erwin, being the pack leader, won.

As always.

Levi was forced to look away once more.

“We need to talk,” Erwin said, moving right up to Levi. “Now.”

Before the shorter man could react, Erwin shoved him aside rather painfully, moving him away from Eren. The brunet was in the process of doing up his pants, his hoodie unzipped and on his shoulders and his shirt held in one hand. Erwin didn’t wait for the younger man to finish, he just grabbed his arm once more and began tugging, making Eren drop the shirt so that the only clothes he’d managed to get back on were his boxers, pants and hoodie.

“Hey! Ow! What the fuck!” Eren yelled, punching at Erwin’s chest. Levi’s fists clenched once more, his back straightening instinctively, but he forced himself to stay where he was.

Erwin ignored Eren’s pathetic attempts at injuring him and dug one hand into Eren’s pocket, pulling out his keys. He stared at them, as if making sure they belonged to his truck, and then pocketed them. Then he stuck his hand in his pockets again, this time pulling out his cell phone. He clenched one hand around it, the item cracking ominously before breaking, the screen shattering and the case cracking open. Eren let out a sound of horrified disbelief, but it passed quickly when Erwin dropped the phone and began dragging him towards the basement.

“Wha—hey! Let go! Let me _go_ , you overgrown canine! Get off!”

Erwin ignored him but Levi rushed forward, grabbing at his friend’s shoulder.

“Hey!” he snapped.

The blond turned, blue eyes burning into Levi’s so fiercely that he felt his insides beginning to curl. He wanted to stop him, his brain screaming at him to ignore the pack and protect Eren, but another part of him felt like doing that would be a mistake. Erwin wasn’t going to hurt Eren. He was being rough with him, but he would never intentionally hurt a human. He was just scared.

So Levi clenched his jaw and averted his gaze again, saying nothing and following Erwin into the basement while Eren continued to struggle and hiss insults at Erwin. Once they were at the bottom of the stairs, Erwin moved towards the cage and shifted one of his hands beneath his shirt, pulling the door open and then throwing Eren inside.

Eren cried out when he hit the ground and Levi’s nostrils flared before he raced forward, shoving Erwin aside when the brunet scrambled to his feet, blood blossoming somewhere on his arm beneath his hoodie sleeve.

“Do _not_  injure him,” Levi said in a low, dark voice that he knew he’d never used with Erwin before.

The blond stared at him for a second, and then slowly lowered his eyes to Levi’s hands. Levi followed his gaze and saw his fingers had transformed, his skin darkening near the tips and nails sharpening to claws. It was something that had happened only once before. Something he had wanted to ask Erwin about, but hadn’t gotten around to.

He looked back up at Erwin, who motioned for him to move aside so he could slam the gate shut with his foot, which he did. Once Erwin had it locked, he kept his hand beneath his shirt and twisted at the metal handle until it snapped off so that Eren wouldn’t be able to unlock it.

Levi used that time to try and get himself back under control, staring at his hands until they returned to normal.

“Hey! Hey!” Eren raced for the bars and grabbed them with both hands, trying to reach out and pull at Erwin’s shirt, but the blond had already moved away, heading back for the stairs.

“Upstairs. Now.”

“Hey, you can’t just leave me here! Let me out! _Hey_!”

“Stay,” Erwin snapped at Eren, turning to lock gazes with him. Eren shut up immediately, and Erwin continued up the stairs, Levi following behind him.

When they reached the landing, they exited the basement and shut the door behind them.

* * *

“You’ve been scent-marking him,” Erwin said, leaning back against the counter and crossing his arms. It was a statement, not a question, so Levi didn’t bother saying anything. “He smells a lot like you, so how long have you been doing it?”

“A while,” Levi responded coldly, taking a seat at the kitchen table and rubbing at a spot on the wooden surface. He scowled, wondering how it had gotten there. If it was because of Jean and Eren when they had broken in, he was going to make the moron downstairs clean it with his tongue.

Then again, that would be just as disgusting so maybe a toothbrush. He’d think on it later. For now, he had a very angry pack leader bearing down on him for something he didn’t even feel warranted his anger, and a terrified human screaming bloody murder in his basement.

He was a little annoyed that Erwin was so angry with him. Yes, he had omitted information, but Eren being unharmed seemed like a pretty good thing, in his opinion. Why Erwin was angry about it, he didn’t know. Perhaps he was just upset that none of his own human friends had ever been spared.

Levi was currently sitting at two. Hanji, who had turned, and Eren, who was completely fine.

“Start talking.” Erwin ordered.

“I don’t know why he’s okay,” Levi insisted.

“So you’ve said. From the beginning, Levi. What are you doing here, and who is he? I’ve never seen you like this before, not even with Isabel.”

Levi clenched his jaw, still rubbing at the spot, but he knew Erwin had a right to know. He knew a portion of it, of course he did, but not all of it. So Levi began to explain.

He told him more about the dreams he’d been having, explaining all aspects of them. About how they always started with him protecting the faceless person and then fucking them. Once he’d met Eren, as Erwin already knew, that nameless, faceless person had become him. Levi realized he was beginning to develop feelings for him, but he kept them buried because he didn’t understand where they were coming from.

Then he explained about Shiganshina as a whole. How he had been drawn there. How he was obsessed with the Jaeger family. Not even just Eren, but his parents, as well. Mikasa he didn’t really have any opinion on other than what he’d spoken to Erwin about during his visit. She could look them in the eye. She had the same last name. They looked similar. He wondered if she was like him. A wolf, but dormant. Dormant as he had been until that fateful night in the woods with Farlan.

He explained the anxiousness he felt, the fear. The feelings he kept having that Eren was in danger, that something was after him, hunting him, trying to hurt him. He couldn’t explain why his brain had forced him to move here to protect someone he hadn’t even known at the time, but now that he did, he couldn’t stop worrying about him. Even now, having him beneath his feet in a cage and safe, he still felt anxious. Still worried something was coming for him, something he couldn’t stop. Couldn’t protect him from.

And the dreams were getting worse. The desires were beginning to take hold, and he often found himself watching Eren, memorizing the lines of his face, the way his muscles shifted beneath his skin, the sound of his laugh. He wanted him, and he knew he did. The more aware he became, the harder he worked to bury the feelings. He was already too close, too attached.

Then last night had happened. He couldn’t even accurately explain his panic and terror while speaking to Erwin. He couldn’t express the level of fear that rose within him at the realization that he was going to turn and that Eren was locked in the room with him. He’d been positive Eren was a dead man. Positive he would’ve killed yet another person he cared about.

But he hadn’t. He’d woken up with no memory of his time as a wolf, as was the norm, and while usually he was glad to have no memory of the horrible things he’d done, this time—this time was different. This time he _wanted_  to know. Almost _needed_  to. He wanted to know how Eren had survived. Why he’d woken up with his head in his lap. How he was acting as if nothing was wrong.

Hell, how the fucking idiotic moron had shown up _at his house_ after having been locked in a room with him all night as a fucking wolf! Who _did_  that?!

Idiots like Eren, apparently.

Levi stopped talking once he’d recounted everything up to that very moment, mind beginning to drift back to the night before, struggling to recall what had happened, what he’d done. Was there something in the storage room perhaps that had knocked him out? Was he about to attack and had passed out and landed on Eren, and the brunet hadn’t moved him?

This was unheard of. Erwin’s reaction was proof of that. Humans did not survive a night with a wolf unscathed. They died, or they turned. There was no third option. There never had been.

Until today.

“You should’ve told me,” Erwin said, voice low and dangerous. “You should’ve admitted all of this to me from the beginning instead of coming out here and thinking you had everything under control.”

“I _do_  have everything under control,” Levi snapped in response.

“If you had everything under control, Eren wouldn’t be locked in the basement right now!” Erwin hollered.

“You’re the one who _put him there_!” the other man countered angrily. “If he was going to tell someone, he _would have_  by now! Instead, he came here! He came here to talk to me, to get an explanation, to _understand_!” Levi got to his feet. “He wants to know what happened! What are you thinking, that we just _leave_  him down there indefinitely?! Leave town and let him rot?!”

“Maybe!” Erwin said, throwing his arms in the air. “Levi, you don’t even _know_  him! He knows what you are, what we _both_  are! There are _rules_ —!”

“Pack leaders make the rules,” Levi countered, shifting closer to the door, as if ready to protect Eren should Erwin make a break for him. He hadn’t even really noticed he’d done so until he caught the look Erwin was giving him. “He isn’t going to tell anyone. He would’ve done that already if he was going to, and we’d have people up here with pitchforks and—”

Both of their heads turned towards the front hall when Levi’s landline began to ring. He felt his heart beginning to pick up in speed, especially since the sound had Eren screaming again, as if thinking he could be heard. No one without hearing like his and Erwin would be able to hear him, the basement was soundproof for a reason.

Soundproof so no one would hear Levi growling and howling during the full moon, not to stop people from hearing a scared idiot screaming at the top of his lungs. Useful, if unplanned.

Walking out of the kitchen, but keeping an eye on the door to ensure Erwin didn’t run for the basement, Levi walked to the phone and answered it.

“Hello?” he asked, still watching Erwin in the kitchen, who had begun to pace again.

_“Levi? It’s Grisha. Sorry for bothering you, I know we had an agreement that I wouldn’t call unless it was an emergency, but have you seen Eren? His mother is worried, said he ran out of the store agitated and scared and I haven’t been able to get a hold of him.”_

Levi’s gaze shifted to the living room, where Eren’s broken phone still lay on the carpeted floor. He felt his stomach twist uneasily at hearing about how scared Eren had been. Erwin’s reaction to his appearance probably wasn’t helping much.

“No,” he said easily, the lie coming naturally. “I haven’t seen him since this morning.”

_“Carla said you were both locked in the storage room. I’m sorry that happened. I’ve been meaning to get that door fixed.”_  The old man sighed. _“If you see or hear from Eren, please let me know. I’m worried, and Carla is, too.”_

“I will be sure to let you know if I have any news,” Levi said. He tensed instantly, hand tightening on the phone when Erwin walked out of the kitchen, but he merely strode past him and out of the house. Levi relaxed ever so slightly. “I’m sure he’s fine.”

_“Of course. Thank you, Levi. Sorry for disturbing you.”_

Grisha hung up and Levi did the same just in time to hear a truck roar to life. He wandered to the front hall and opened his door, watching Erwin drive Eren’s truck around the side of the house so he could park it in the large backyard. Even if people came up the hill to see if Eren’s truck was there, unless they went around back, nobody would know he was here.

And who would go around back aside from Jean? Levi wasn’t planning on letting that little shit _anywhere_  on his property right now.

When Erwin returned, he shut the front door and the two of them stood in the entrance in silence, the blond man rubbing at his mouth.

“How long?” Erwin asked.

Levi was confused for only a moment, but when he realized Erwin’s eyes were locked on his hands, he understood. He looked down at his hands, eyes skirting to the mark on his wrist, which he still hadn’t told Erwin about. One thing at a time.

Or, in this case, two.

“It’s only ever happened once before,” Levi said quietly, recalling that day in the store with Annie. He’d been worried he would bleed enough that Eren would notice, since he’d had his arms crossed and his claws had broken skin on his upper arms. The wounds had healed instantly and he’d managed to wipe the blood off before anyone could notice, but it didn’t stop him from being confused and worried about it.

“Just the hands?” Erwin asked.

“So far,” Levi admitted, looking up at him, letting his hands drop. “What do you know of it?”

The pack leader said nothing for a long while, watching Levi intently, as if weighing his words carefully. Eventually, he seemed to just go for it, probably knowing Levi didn’t care about the sugarcoating.

“It’s been known to happen, but it’s rare. Most wolves shift entirely or not at all. I’ve only heard of one other case in our lifetime where the wolf half-shifted, but still maintained their human form. It didn’t end well for her.”

Levi waited, hoping Erwin would continue without prompting since he wasn’t in the mood.

He did.

“She lost control in front of humans, got angry and tore one of them to shreds. Pack had to get some Casters involved, owed them a huge debt. It was messy.”

Levi looked back down at his hands, scowling slightly. He’d never seen his hands do that before he’d arrived in Shiganshina. He hadn’t even known it was possible. To half-shift. Levi had always turned into a wolf entirely, or remained human with the usual added enhancements. To know he could force a half-shift was both exciting and terrifying.

So far, his loss of control had only happened twice, so he tried not to let it bother him too much. Both times were warranted, so obviously he could keep himself in check. Besides, that was only a small little drop in a sea of troubles right now.

When he looked back up at Erwin, his friend was looking past him at the basement door down the corridor, expression easily giving away what he was thinking.

Namely, that they had to get rid of Eren.

“He isn’t going to say anything,” Levi reaffirmed, forcing Erwin’s gaze back to him. “He just wants answers.”

“He’s a threat.”

“He’s a child,” Levi snapped, ignoring the fact that he was only a few years older than Eren. “His disappearance won’t go unnoticed. His best friend already thinks I’m a serial killer, and I’m not planning on becoming one. So you better figure out what the plan is, because if you so much as _touch_  him, we’re going to have a problem.”

They locked gazes again, but this time, Levi wasn’t going to back down. Erwin seemed to recognize that because he turned to the basement door once more and began walking towards it.

“Let’s go talk to him then.” He pulled it open, then turned to Levi. “You better hope you’re right, Levi. It’s not just you that you’re endangering.”

Levi hoped he was right, too.

For more reasons than one.

* * *

“Let me out!” Eren shouted at the top of his lungs, shaking at the bars and struggling to get the gate open. It was proving difficult with the broken latch. “Let me _out_ , you stupid fucking furry beasts! Wolves suck! You hear me?! You _suck_! Let me _out_  before I turn you into a fucking _rug_!” He reached through the bars, struggling to push the latch through the hole so the door would open.

What kind of moron Werewolf broke off the handle that allowed the cage they used during transformations to lock and unlock? What were they going to do next month? And how long were they planning on keeping him down there?! This was kidnapping! Bonafide kidnapping! Eren was not going to die in some creepy writer’s basement for said writer to feed off him like a wild animal!

“Let me out!” he screamed again, shaking the bars violently. “Let me out! Let me out! Let me out! Le—”

The door opened and the words died in his throat. He’d been so focussed on being let out that he’d forgotten that meant they had to come downstairs to do so. Which meant they could just kill him for all his rude comments. He backed away from the front of the cage when both men descended the stairs, watching him intently once they reached the bottom. Erwin stood in front of the steps and crossed his arms while Levi headed to the other side of the basement. Eren saw him rooting through a toolbox before wandering over to the cage with a screwdriver and a hammer.

Feeling less afraid of Levi than he did Erwin—especially since Levi seemed to be on _his_  side—Eren moved closer to the front of the cage when the other man bent down.

“This cage was expensive,” Levi said to his friend, putting the end of the screwdriver against the bolt and then tapping lightly at the back of it with the hammer to force the cylindrical piece of metal backwards so the gate would unlock.

“You can afford it,” was Erwin’s response.

Levi said nothing while he tapped away until the lock finally disengaged. Eren noticed him do the same thing as Erwin, shifting one hand beneath his shirt and using it to swing the gate open, motioning Eren out.

The brunet glanced back and forth between the two men, wondering if they were letting him out because they liked a good chase with their dinner. Oh God, he was about to be fucking _dinner_!

_Well, given the time of day, more like brunch, or straight-up lunch,_  his brain supplied helpfully.

He very colourfully told it to shut the fuck up.

“Well?” Levi demanded, motioning him out again. “You coming out, or would you prefer to stay in there? I’m okay with that, too.”

Eren hastened forward, not wanting to be locked in again and moved to the side the second he was out, eyes shifting back and forth between the two men.

“I’m guessing you came by to talk,” Levi said, motioning the stairs, which Erwin still stood in front of. “So let’s talk.”

Eren’s gaze shifted to the stairs, Erwin not moving. He and Levi had a little staring contest before the blond finally shifted to the side, allowing access up the stairs.

Hesitating, Eren headed slowly for them, still watching the two men, heart beating double-time in his chest. He inched around Erwin and started up the stairs, making it five steps before breaking into a run, barrelling up them at rapid speed.

He let out a shout when he felt something grab at his hood but since it was still unzipped, he just yanked his arms out of it, stumbled up the last step, and then shot out the basement door. He slammed it behind him for good measure, then raced for the front door. He hit it so hard his shoulder ached but his shaking hands managed to get it open and he bolted out of the house, headed straight for his truck.

The truck that was no longer where he had parked it. Which was fine, since he also didn’t have his keys, so really, he’d just have been stuck in there and the big, scary Werewolves could probably rip the damn door off.

Ignoring the missing truck, he just kept running, left foot protesting the action considering he wasn’t wearing his shoes and it was still badly injured. He ignored it as best he could, running down the street and turning at the curve, trying to make it to the closest house. If he could make it to Traute’s house down the hill, Erwin wouldn’t be able to hurt him anymore.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

He heard pounding footsteps behind him and just sped up, his lungs burning and foot aching horribly. He was scared to turn around, scared to see who was chasing him and how close they were.

Eren was almost at the next bend, which would put him within sight of Traute Carven’s house when something grabbed him around the middle and lifted him clear off his feet, the figure skidding to a halt.

“Let go!” Eren elbowed backwards, catching Erwin in the ribs. He may as well have elbowed a brick wall, for all the good it did him. “Help! He—!” A hand fell onto his mouth and he struggled, kicking out his legs and flailing his fists, trying to make Erwin drop him.

He didn’t, and within seconds, Levi’s truck stopped beside them. The back door was thrown open and Erwin tossed Eren into it before climbing in and practically sitting on him. All the air rushed out of Eren’s lungs and he was finding it difficult to breathe.

“Get back to the house,” Erwin snapped to Levi, slamming the door.

“Stop being so rough with him!” Levi snapped back. “You’re going to kill him, let him get some air!”

Eren felt the pressure on his back ease up ever so slightly, but not enough for him to be able to breathe comfortably.

“Drive,” Erwin said again.

This time, Levi didn’t argue. He just shifted the truck into reverse and backed it up the hill and around each bend Eren had managed to get around. Within five seconds, his valiant attempt at escape led him right back to where he’d been moments before.

“I don’t remember him being this annoying,” Erwin muttered, climbing off Eren but keeping one knee in the center of his spine while wrenching his wrists together behind his back.

“No, he’s pretty much always been this annoying,” Levi muttered.

Eren couldn’t see either of them from his position on the back seat, lying on his stomach with his body pressed against the soft leather, but he felt something biting into his wrists and then he let out a small cry when his arm was grabbed and he was hauled up onto his knees, the other man yanking him out of the truck.

He stumbled and almost fell over, his arm aching at the weird position he was being held in, but Levi grabbed his other arm and steadied him, his grip much gentler than Erwin’s.

“Stop being so rough!”

Erwin didn’t say anything. He just gave Levi a look until he released Eren’s arm and then grabbed the brunet around the middle, tossing him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Then, he began walking back towards the house.

Thoughts returning to being locked in the cage and ending up as dinner, Eren immediately began screaming for help at the top of his lungs again. That lasted all of two seconds, because his position had made his head higher than Erwin’s and when the older man walked through the front door, the back of Eren’s head collided with the top of it so hard that he blacked out for a few seconds. When his vision began returning, dots and stars were dancing before his eyes and he struggled to get his vision back under control.

Letting out a shout when he was thrown unceremoniously onto the couch, he almost bounced clean off it before getting his feet onto the ground and levelling himself, whipping around to stare at the two men.

“This is _kidnapping_! You can’t just keep me here!” he shouted at them almost hysterically, struggling to loosen his bonds. All it did was cause whatever he was tied with to dig further into his wrists and he winced in pain.

“I thought you came here to talk,” Erwin said calmly, large arms crossed over his chest and eyes hard.

Eren looked away when he answered, not needing to wet himself right now. He was already almost there even _without_  looking him in the eye. “I _do_  wanna talk!”

“Then why are you running?” Levi asked calmly, as if genuinely curious.

“You locked me in a cage!” Eren shouted at the floor, not trusting himself to look at them. “Who _wouldn’t_  run?! I don’t wanna be dinner!”

“You’re not going to be dinner,” Erwin said, sounding disgusted.

“I don’t know that!”

“Calm down,” Levi snapped, moving further into the room and closer to the couch. He bent down beside Eren who shifted away from him, still looking anywhere but at him. “We’re not going to hurt you. We just wanna talk, same as you.”

“Then take these off,” Eren spat, shifting his arms painfully.

“The last time we tried that, you ran out of the house.” Erwin shook his head. “You’re staying exactly as you are until you calm down.”

“I _am_  calm!” Eren shouted.

He breathed hard while looking back and forth between the two men’s shoes. Levi was still crouched in front of him and Erwin was standing by the door. He could practically feel the tension in the air. Tension that _they_  had created!

Eren had been _fine_! He’d been completely fine coming up here and having a conversation with Levi. Was he scared? Yes, of course he was! Who the fuck wouldn’t be?! But he’d known Levi was probably freaking out so he’d wanted to come up and talk. That was it. Just talk. Figure things out. Understand what had happened.

The second he’d walked in, some big burly man was ripping off his clothes and throwing him into a cage in a basement. Who _wouldn’t_  freak out?! No one! No one wouldn’t freak out! This entire thing was fucking terrifying, and being thrown half-naked into a cage was _not_  helping!

Being chased down a street and tied up by an angry Werewolf _also_  wasn’t helping!

His breathing began to come faster and faster, dots dancing in front of his eyes once more. He could hear Levi calling his name, but he sounded extremely far away. His chest felt tight and he couldn’t get enough oxygen into his lungs. He felt like he was suffocating.

“Eren!” Pain jerked up his spine and he realized he’d been yanked onto the floor. Levi was shoving his head down between his bent knees, instructing him to breathe. To calm down. To just listen to his voice and breathe.

It helped. Kind of. Before he remembered he was panicking _because_  of Levi, which set him off again. His lungs were constricting once more and he clenched his eyes shut. This couldn’t be happening. This was in- _fucking_ -sane!

“Eren, listen to me. Listen to my voice. You’re okay. We’re not going to hurt you. But you need to slow your breathing.” Eren felt a hand on his back, rubbing smooth circles against his bare skin, occasionally moving upwards to squeeze the back of his neck before returning to the circles on his back. “Just breathe. You’re okay. You’re going to be okay. Just breathe. That’s it. Just like that.”

How was it that Levi always managed to calm him down so easily? Especially considering _he_  was the reason Eren was panicking to begin with.

Levi was still speaking to him but he couldn’t really make out the words anymore. Just the low timbre of his voice. It was soothing, and the hand on his back was warm and calming. Eren closed his eyes, trying to keep his breathing steady.

Levi smelled good. Why did he always smell so good?

He felt his consciousness drifting, mind and body exhausted from the panic the previous night, and this morning, coupled with not having slept more than two hours.

Eren didn’t remember falling asleep, but between Levi’s soft words and his calming presence, his brain slowly began to shut down and he passed out. 


	9. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much Erwin hate last chapter. Poor guy :(
> 
> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Twilight (c) Stephenie Meyer

Eren was disoriented when he woke up. For a good few seconds, he didn’t know where he was and the longer he looked around the room, the less that feeling dissipated. It took his brain much too long to figure out that he was currently lying in a bed in Levi’s house. The sheets were soft and comfortable and while his brain tried to wake up a little more, he ran his hands back and forth along the material.

He wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was still bright out so it must’ve been somewhere around noon. He was supposed to be working tonight, though given his last shift, he was hoping maybe his dad would give him a pass. Either way, he really needed to get home but somehow, he didn’t feel like he was going to be succeeding.

Drawing his knees up to his chest, he wrapped his arms around them and rested his forehead against his knees. His brain was a jumbled mess. He was terrified, but also confused because he felt safe at the same time.

Levi was soothing. He was comforting. He made Eren feel safe, even when he terrified him. It was a weird and uncomfortable feeling. He _liked_  having him around, and he’d seen how terrified he was both the night before when he was turning, as well as this morning when he realized Eren now knew what he was.

He didn’t judge him, he just had questions. And was terrified. Extremely terrified. So very, very, horribly, terribly, extremely, out of control terrified.

But! Levi had never hurt him or shown any signs of ever _wanting_  to hurt him! He got mad at him, but to be fair, Eren had broken into his house. And he and Jean kept insisting he was a serial killer so, really, anyone would be pissed about that. Eren wouldn’t be particularly happy if someone had accused _him_  of being a serial killer. So really, Levi’s reactions were perfectly understandable, if a little terrifying.

Rubbing at his face, Eren realized he felt a little calmer now. He supposed sleeping had helped, not to mention he wasn’t locked in a cage _and_  his wrists had been freed—though they were sore and raw from the rope binding him. Overall, an improvement from a few hours ago. Really, it was Erwin who was making things worse. He figured he was just worried. Levi was his friend, he was looking out for him.

And Eren _had_  kind of started running and screaming for help so...

Sighing and scratching at his head, he figured now that he was a bit calmer—and still hadn’t been turned into dinner—he could afford to have a marginally normal conversation with them.

Maybe.

Possibly.

Probably not, Erwin gave him the creeps.

Throwing the blankets off himself, he climbed out of bed and winced when he put weight on his injured foot. He noticed it had been re-bandaged at some point during his nap and that made him feel a little better. They wouldn’t be fixing him up if they were planning on killing him.

Or eating him.

He checked his arm too, and saw that had also been bandaged. The level of care with which it had been done seemed familiar, and given he knew Levi had done this once before, he could only assume it had been him.

Lifting his gaze to the door, he stared at it for a good few seconds, trying to convince himself to get out of bed. Which room was he in, anyway? It looked like Levi’s, the guest room hadn’t had any sheets the last time he’d seen it. Levi had dumped him on his bed? Really?

That was kind of nice, actually...

Taking a few deep breaths, Eren cleared his throat, shifted his weight a little, and slowly headed for the door. The floorboards creaked beneath his feet, and when his hand closed around the knob, it squeaked the entire length of the turn. He inched open the door, the hinges squeaking as loudly as the knob, and he winced, poking his head out and looking both ways down the corridor. He wasn’t sneaking around, he just didn’t want to startle his heart into his throat.

Seeing the coast was clear, he walked out into the corridor. It occurred to him that being quiet might make the wolves in the house think he was trying to escape so he began walking normally towards the stairs, descending them in such a way that he wasn’t purposefully trying to make noise, but was obviously also not trying to be quiet about it.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he caught sight of the front door and felt his chest constrict again. There was a board across it, nailed into the door jamb like in old condemned houses to keep the windows and doors boarded up. He assumed it was there to stop him from escaping. Not a comforting sight.

Taking a breath, he rounded the bottom of the stairs and headed towards the kitchen. It was silent, but he knew they were there since he hadn’t seen them in the living room. He entered the area and saw them both sitting at the kitchen table, watching him.

“Eren.” Levi began to stand and Eren held up one hand, pointing a finger at him and making nonsensical noises that Levi thankfully understood as him telling Levi to stay where he was. The older man slowly sank back into his seat, Eren’s eyes shifting to the little window above the sink.

His truck was in the backyard. Of course it was, why wouldn’t they have hidden it? They were essentially holding him hostage here, they had to hide the evidence.

Not the best hiding spot, but he supposed it would do for now.

“I would like to leave,” he said as calmly as he could manage.

“Well you’re not going to be leaving right now,” Erwin said, getting to his feet. Eren shifted backwards, ready to bolt—wherever in the house, but Levi stood instantly and moved between the two of them, his back to Eren.

“You’re making it worse.”

Eren couldn’t see Levi’s expression, but whatever it was, Erwin didn’t seem impressed by it.

“You can’t keep me here,” Eren insisted. “People will be looking for me.”

“Well we can’t let you _go_ , either,” Erwin said, seeming annoyed. “You ran screaming down the street, it doesn’t exactly instil any level of comfort.”

“You locked me in a cage!” Eren reminded him. Again. “You literally picked me up and threw me into a cage! You made me scrape my elbow!” Eren bent his arm and motioned it. “You really think I’m interested in talking to you?! No! I want out! You can’t keep me here!”

Turning on his heel, Eren raced back down the corridor, ignoring Levi’s shout after him. Knowing the front door was out, he decided to go for the same exit he’d taken when he and Jean had broken into the house. Rushing back up the stairs, he threw himself into the first room he came upon—which was Levi’s as opposed to the guest room—and made it to the window, beginning to wrestle to get it open when someone grabbed him around the middle and tossed him onto the bed.

He let out a shout when his wrists were grabbed and wrenched behind his back, his right one protesting angrily. He felt like his arm was about to break. He felt like the bone was seconds away from snapping.

“Get off him!”

The pressure left him and he heard a smack and a loud thud. Scrambling across the bed to the other side, Eren spun around while crouched on the floor, peeking over the bed at Levi and Erwin by the window.

Erwin was against the wall, hand moving up to touch the blood welling at the corner of his mouth. Levi’s fists were clenched, eyes hard and breathing ragged. Erwin licked at the corner of his mouth and then pushed away from the wall, moving forward so he was standing right in front of Levi. He was a giant compared to Levi, but the other man didn’t back down. They stared at one another angrily for a few long, tense seconds, and then Erwin let out a sound of interest before backing up a step.

“We nailed the window shut, too,” Erwin said, turning his gaze on Eren. “Did you think we were stupid enough to leave you up here alone with a window?”

Eren said nothing, but it made sense. They’d probably spent the entire time he’d been passed out making sure he couldn’t escape the house. He was a prisoner. A kidnap victim.

He was going to die in this house with two very angry Werewolves and that really, really sucked.

“You came here to talk, right?” Levi asked, moving around the bed slowly and crouching beside him. Eren just stared at him, as if not understanding what he was saying. “So let’s talk.”

Eren’s eyes shifted back to Erwin. “I don’t want to talk with him.”

“That’s fine. Erwin can wait downstairs.”

The blond man didn’t seem to mind that, which Eren found weird. Then he remembered they had superhearing, so having him leave the room wouldn’t stop him from listening in. It would just stop him from injuring Eren some more.

When Erwin began moving around the bed, Eren stood from his crouched position and inched away from him. Levi stood as well, forming a barrier between the two of them. Erwin left the room and shut the door behind him, his footsteps receding down the corridor almost silently. None of the floorboards seemed to creak when _he_  walked! That was unfair!

“Are you okay?” Levi asked, turning to him and moving closer. “Let me see.”

Before Eren could say anything, Levi had taken his arm and pulled it closer, inspecting his wrist. It looked red, but he couldn’t tell if that was from the ropes or Erwin, though Eren did wonder if it would bruise either way. Just what he needed: more injuries.

Levi shifted his hands and Eren winced when the other began massaging his wrist with his thumbs, eyes downcast and focussed on what he was doing. Eren just watched him, feeling his pounding heart beginning to slow, the calming aura returning. It was weird, he’d never felt this calm around Levi before. To be fair, he’d never spent a lot of _time_  with Levi before, but still.

“He’s faster than me.”

“What?” Eren asked, eyes shooting back up to Levi’s face.

“Erwin. He’s faster than me. I tried to stop him, but he got here first.”

Eren just nodded awkwardly, not sure what to say to that. He licked his lips, still watching Levi’s hands move against his wrist, then spoke.

“So... you’re a-a Werewolf then?”

The hands paused and Levi let one slide up the length of his arm to his elbow before he dropped them back to his sides. Eren missed the warmth of them already, but said nothing and let his own hand fall as well.

“You can’t tell anyone, Eren,” Levi said, eyes shooting up and locking with his. He looked almost... desperate when he said it.

Eren shook his head emphatically. “I won’t. I wouldn’t. I wasn’t going to at all, I just—I didn’t... really know how to process what happened. You were just... there, and then you weren’t.”

“What happened last night?” Levi asked, moving backwards and sitting on the bed. He left plenty of space between himself and the headboard, where Eren was closest to, and the brunet figured he was trying to put him at ease.

He hesitated before slowly taking a seat as close to the headboard as he could, leaving a good two bodies of space between himself and Levi.

“So, I was right, then? You aren’t yourself when you turn?”

“No. And usually people don’t live through it. You’re either dead or infected, but you...” He frowned. “Why aren’t you even hurt?”

Eren motioned his elbow rather emphatically and Levi gave him an annoyed look.

“I meant by _me_ , when I was a wolf. How are you all right? What happened?”

“Uh, nothing?” Eren asked, somewhat confused.

He recounted the previous night’s events, explaining to Levi that once he’d turned, while he’d been growling and terrifying for a few seconds, he’d calmed down really quickly once he’d gotten close to Eren and ended up passing out on his lap.

That conversation was followed with a lot of weird questions, such as what kind of shampoo Eren used and what was currently in the storage room at work at the moment. Levi had even shifted closer to smell him, as if to confirm he smelled the same way he always did, and then had begun insisting it was impossible and that something was wrong.

“Look, I get that you’re not... used to people surviving this, but don’t you think it’s a little, I don’t know, overkill to be keeping me trapped here?” Eren asked, crossing his arms protectively.

“You know what we are,” Levi countered. “You’re still human, and you know what we are. Erwin is being cautious.”

“Well, his ‘caution’ is making me more likely to tell people than your calm conversation,” Eren muttered, feeling the muscles in his crossed arms tensing over his chest and suddenly remembering he still didn’t have a shirt on. “Where are my clothes?”

“Downstairs.” Levi rubbed at his mouth. “I’m serious, Eren. You can’t tell anyone about this.”

“I won’t,” he insisted. “As long as the big guy downstairs stops abusing me.”

Levi glanced at the door, then back at Eren. “He says he’ll keep his hands to himself.”

Eren’s eyes shifted back and forth between Levi and the door, then he rubbed the back of his neck. “So you can–you can really hear _everything_ , huh?”

“Not everything, but a lot. Part of our wolf side.”

“Right.” Eren winced. “You’re not, uh, gonna kill me now, right?”

The question seemed to cause Levi physical pain, because a weird expression crossed his features before he shook his head. “No. As long as you don’t say anything, you don’t have to worry. Erwin is just protective, it’s his job.”

Eren wanted to ask what that meant but the landline began ringing again. Both of their gazes shot towards the cordless phone on the dresser across the room.

Honestly, now Eren felt dumb. He could’ve called for help had he known the phone was there, but barely anyone had a landline anymore. He’d forgotten it had been ringing earlier, so he hadn’t even thought to look for it when he’d woken up.

Apparently Levi had forgotten about it, too, because he shot a look at Eren before getting to his feet.

“Can I trust you to keep your mouth shut?”

He honestly didn’t know the answer to that himself, but Eren ended up nodding and Levi padded across the room to the phone. When he answered it, he turned to look at Eren. The brunet _wanted_  to scream for help again, but Levi was... nice. He was calming. He hadn’t done anything to hurt him, and as terrified of Erwin as he was, he also understood he was just scared. Levi and Erwin were scared of Eren.

A funny thought, when he really considered it.

“I’m sorry, I haven’t heard from him. Yes, I will let you know if I hear anything. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help. I’m sure he’ll show up again soon. Of course. Good luck.” Levi hung up.

“Who was it?” Eren asked.

“Your dad.”

“My-my dad?” He frowned. “Why?”

“Your mother got worried after you ran out this morning.” Levi turned back to him, banging his fist lightly against his dresser. “You should probably go.”

 _Yeah, I’ve been trying to for hours,_  Eren thought bitterly, but instead said, “You really think he’s gonna let me leave?” He thumbed in the door’s direction, clearly referencing Erwin.

“As long as you don’t tell anyone, we have no reason to keep you here.” Levi moved forward and Eren pressed himself back against the headboard. The other was standing right beside him, eyes boring into his. “ _Are_  you going to tell anyone?”

“No,” Eren said in a small voice.

“I’m trusting you, Eren. Don’t make me regret it. Remember, I have amazing hearing and a great sense of smell. You wouldn’t be able to hide from me.” He turned and headed for the door. “Come on.”

It took him a few seconds to peel himself off the bed, finding he was getting scared again at the prospect of seeing Erwin. When he inched slowly down the stairs, he saw Erwin exiting his truck back in the front yard, slamming the door and beginning to head back for the house. When Eren turned to see where Levi had gone, he jumped when he found him right behind him with his clothes.

“Don’t _do_  that!” He wrenched them from Levi’s hand, trying to ignore the little smirk on his face at having startled him. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” he muttered, beginning to pull his shirt on.

“Sorry.”

He didn’t _sound_  sorry, but Eren didn’t comment on it and just got himself dressed, watching Erwin’s progress around the house. Eren assumed the only door allowing access was the back door, hence his trek back to the kitchen from outside.

“He owes me a new phone, by the way.”

“I’ll be sure to let him know.” Levi sounded amused, but Eren didn’t have time for this. He just wanted to get his clothes on and leave.

He was in the process of tying his shoes when Erwin sauntered in, hands shoved into his pockets and gaze locked on Eren. The brunet was just glad that Levi was still standing between the two of them, almost acting like a protective shield.

“I’ve had a thought,” Erwin said while Eren straightened. His eyes seemed bright and Eren realized he looked feverish, just as Levi had the day before. Maybe it was just an effect of the change, neither he nor Levi seemed to be sick.

“A thought?” Eren asked uncertainly.

“You should come over tonight.”

The brunet stared at him, speechless.

“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Levi supplied in his stead.

“You can’t tell me you aren’t interested in what happened last night,” Erwin countered, still eying Eren as if he looked like dinner. “We’ll be in the cage, we won’t be able to hurt him. It’ll be an experiment so we can see if I react the same way you did.”

“We’re not doing that,” Levi insisted angrily, hands clenched into fists. “You _know_  how we react when we see humans in our wolf forms. It immediately brings out the animal within and we attack. We’re not putting him through that.”

Eren had always heard that wolves were actually more afraid of humans than humans were of them. They tended to stay away from them as much as possible unless they were rabid or a threat to the pack. Other than that, they steered clear. Eren had to wonder why Werewolves were different, it was a little sad. Maybe Werewolves were why wolves had such bad reputations.

“We’ll be in the cage, Levi. He’ll be perfectly safe.”

“I’m not risking it!” Levi shouted, making Eren jump.

Erwin gave him a weird look, and even Eren didn’t understand why Levi was so protective. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen this side of Levi, it just confused him, was all. He was always so cautious, so careful. He always wanted to make sure Eren was okay, and it was weird.

Nice, but weird.

“This is an experiment, we should look into the possibility. Hanji would be on board.”

“I’m not Hanji!” Levi snarled.

“What does it matter?” Eren demanded, looking back and forth between them. “You turned already, how is tonight going to help at all?” Not that he was even _entertaining_  the idea of coming over.

“The full moon lasts three nights,” Levi muttered, eyes still on Erwin. “Tonight will be night two, so we’ll be turning again.”

“Oh.” Eren hadn’t known that. He’d always assumed it was just the one day. The calendar suggested it was only one day.

“We need to know why this happened,” Erwin pressed, moving a step closer, which caused Levi to shoot one hand out to the side, standing protectively in front of Eren. “You understand, don’t you, Eren? The importance of this? We’re trusting you with our secret, don’t you think you owe us a little bit of trust in return?”

“It’s not the same thing,” Levi insisted, speaking for Eren and growling low in his throat. “We’re not in control of our actions, we could _kill_  him!”

“If you were going to kill him, he’d have died last night,” Erwin shot back, eyes still on Eren, who was trying not to cower behind Levi. It was hard to cower behind someone shorter than him, anyway.

“What do you think, Eren? Are you willing to help us out in this experiment?” Erwin offered him a kind smile, almost like he thought he could trick him into agreeing.

Levi turned to look over his shoulder at him. He couldn’t identify the look in his eyes. He looked like he wanted Eren to say yes, if only to test the theory, but he also looked terrified of him actually agreeing. It was like two different sides of him were arguing with each other and he didn’t know which side he wanted to win.

“Can-can I think about it?” Eren asked, voice a little stretched.

“Of course. Tonight is night two, so if you’re not comfortable tonight, come by tomorrow instead.” Erwin smiled at him again, seeming to be perfectly pleasant all of a sudden. Eren didn’t know why he’d shifted in mood, but assumed he felt like Eren was telling the truth about keeping this quiet. Which he was going to. If he told anyone, the Werewolves would sniff him out and murder him and he didn’t like being murdered.

Red wasn’t a good colour for him.

“Can I, uh, go now?”

“Of course.” Erwin laughed, as if they were all good friends and he’d just told a funny joke. He tossed the keys at him and Eren barely managed to catch them before they fell. His insides twisted but he forced a smile. Erwin turned then and disappeared down the corridor, heading back for the kitchen. Levi remained frozen where he was in front of Eren for a few seconds, then began walking to the front door, the brunet following closely behind him. When Levi reached it, he literally grabbed the wooden board nailed to the door and tugged. It came free easily, reaffirming Eren’s conviction to keep his mouth shut because holy shit they could crush his skull like a walnut!

Before he did anything else, Levi turned back to Eren and started to reach out for him. When the brunet shifted back, Levi’s hand hovered for a few moments before he closed it into a fist and let it fall back to his side.

He opened the door and headed outside, Eren following quickly. He practically raced to his truck, yanking open the door and climbing in. He started the car and had just been about to slam the door so he could drive off and not look back when Levi was suddenly there, gripping the edge, staring up at him.

“You don’t have to come,” he said. “You’re still traumatized from last night, and clearly still terrified of all this. I don’t want you getting hurt. Or worse.”

Eren looked down at the steering wheel, rubbing his hands along it. “Honestly, I’m not... I don’t really want to come by.”

“Then don’t,” Levi said quickly, almost sounding relieved. “Don’t come back. Go home, and stay there.”

“I’m working tonight.”

“Don’t go to work,” Levi insisted, and he looked worried again. It wasn’t an obvious worry, it was just a pinch between his eyebrows, as if he’d smelled something foul. Eren had come to realize that was what he looked like when he was worried. “Just stay home tonight, okay?”

“If I can get out of work, trust me, I will.”

“Good. You better go, your parents are worried.”

“Right.” Eren waited, turning to look at Levi. “You need to—the door?”

Levi stared at his hand, then slowly seemed to be forcing his fingers to uncurl so he was releasing the door. Eren waited for his hand to clear then slammed it shut, feeling a little bad for not wanting to come back and help them. It wouldn’t be so bad, they’d be in a cage, but Eren didn’t know if he could handle that. Not right now.

He had a few hours to think on it. And that was only _if_  he got out of work.

Turning the car around and beginning to drive off, a thought occurred to him and he eased to a stop, rolling down his window and leaning his head out.

“Hey Levi?”

He’d actually expected the other to have gone back into the house, but he was still standing right where he’d left him. He didn’t acknowledge he was listening, but given he knew about his hearing, it wasn’t hard to assume he was.

Eren hesitated, wondering if he really wanted an answer to this. Deciding he did, he blurted out, “Vampires. They’re not—they’re not _real_ , are they?”

He saw the snort from where he was and relaxed, relieved that it was just Werewolves.

Then Levi spoke, voice loud and carrying.

“Real rude and _real_  disgusting. They have no concept of hygiene.”

Eren stared at him for a few seconds, then faced forward, rolled up his window, and began driving again.

“Vampires are real. Terrific. Great. Just what I always wanted to know. That Vampires are real.”

Vampires were real.

Awesome.

Only not so much.

Eren was never sleeping again.

* * *

Eren stared up at his ceiling, brain alternating between screaming words at him and buzzing with silence. He was lying on his back with his hands behind his head and his green eyes locked on the smooth, white expanse of the wall above him.

Currently, his brain was just buzzing, the silence a welcome relief from the panicked screaming he’d been feeling since arriving home. He’d at least been able to convince his parents that something was wrong, considering how agitated he’d been, not to mention the injuries on his wrists. Thankfully, he hadn’t had to explain those too much because he really didn’t have an answer for them.

His father had told him not to worry about the shop, that it could be closed for another night. No one was available to cover it, and it was obvious Grisha didn’t want Eren to go back just yet.

He felt bad that his parents had worried about him. He’d had to lie and say being locked in the room all night had had a weird effect on him. He’d even had to say that Levi had been the one to calm him down, which was complete bullshit given Levi was the reason his night—and day—had been so stressful to begin with.

Jesus fucking _Christ_ , Werewolves? Such things existed? Eren still couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of Werewolves existing. It seemed insane. Hell, he felt like Levi and Erwin didn’t need to worry about him telling anyone, because even if he did, nobody would believe him! They would send him straight to the looney bin and tell him to take his pills and draw pretty pictures.

Rolling onto his side, brain beginning to gear back up again, Eren winced when he put pressure on his injured elbow and instantly felt pain spark through him. Pain that was followed by fear, heart beginning to beat double-time in his chest when he remembered what had happened earlier that day.

Erwin.

Levi, at least, had been trying exceptionally hard to keep Eren calm, to explain. He’d even been kind. But Erwin? Erwin had made things worse. He’d stripped him and abused him and fucking locked him in a cage. Eren wasn’t ashamed to admit he was scared of him.

But how scared was Erwin of _him_? He wasn’t stupid, he knew everything Erwin had done had been done out of fear. Still very unappreciated, but at least he understood.

And now the guy wanted him to come _back_? Spend _another_  night with a wolf? And not even one this time, but _two_? Eren felt like he’d rather eat his own arm. He didn’t want to go back, he didn’t!

He _wouldn’t_! What was Erwin going to do, bully him? As long as he stayed somewhere public, Erwin couldn’t touch him. Sure, he worked the night shift at the store every now and then... in seclusion... in the middle of the night...

Groaning and burying his face in his pillow, Eren knew he had to do _something_! He just... didn’t know what. He was too numb, and scared. He’d watched Levi turn into an actual fucking _wolf_  right in front of him. _Twilight_  had made it look easy and painless but what he’d witnessed... Levi was in pain. He’d seen it in his eyes, heard it in his cries. Transforming into a wolf was not a two second CGI event. It took up to five minutes, it involved bones shifting and cracking, and muscles tearing and rearranging. It involved agony, and fear, and a complete loss of self.

Maybe that was why the wolves forgot themselves when they turned. The pain shut down the human side of them and all that was left was the wolf.

It still didn’t explain what had happened, though. With Levi, in the storage room. Both he and Erwin had been looking at him as if something were wrong with _him_. As if the fact that he wasn’t dead was _much_  more to digest than him finding out they were Werewolves.

Groaning, Eren grabbed his pillow and pulled it over his head, trying to suffocate himself in an attempt to stop his brain from thinking so much. He’d been perfectly happy living in his oblivious little world and he was kind of pissed off that it was being shattered so expertly.

Everything seemed to have changed since Levi’s arrival, not all for the worse. Just most.

The landline began to ring loudly, and the sound only pissed Eren off because of his cell phone. He’d had to lie to his parents, telling them he’d lost it. He could tell they were unhappy, but his distraught state had gotten him a pass on the lecture. One happy outcome, at least. Nice to know his panic was good for something.

“Eren? Honey? The phone’s for you.”

Pulling the pillow off his head, he shouted, “I don’t want to talk to Jean right now!”

“It isn’t Jean, and stop yelling!”

He almost shouted back that _she_  was yelling, but decided against it. He didn’t want to piss her off right now, he didn’t have the brain capacity to deal with that. Groaning and forcing himself to his feet, he shuffled to his bedroom door and exited his room, wandering down the corridor towards the cordless on the hall table.

He let out a whine when he saw the base empty, meaning someone had taken it and not returned it. Sighing in defeat, he turned and headed down the stairs instead, wandering into the kitchen where his mother was, looking giddy. He eyed her suspiciously.

“Who is it?” he asked slowly.

“It’s Levi,” she whispered excitedly. That only made Eren’s stomach twist, eyes shooting to the time. It was almost six. The sun had been setting later and later lately, so he knew he still had time to head over.

“You two have been spending a lot of time together,” his mother teased with a wink. “Have fun in that storage room?”

“Mom,” Eren whined, forever ruing the day he’d informed his parents that he was bisexual.

It didn’t help that his mother very obviously liked Levi, so if anything, she was going to be the biggest fan of their relationship’s progression. Not that they were in a relationship. Not that they ever _would_  be, either.

He took the phone from her and waited for her to leave the room. She kept winking and giving him the thumbs-up, as if approving of his taste. If she weren’t his mother, he’d have thrown something at her head.

Turning back to the phone, Eren let out a slow breath, one hand covering the receiver, and then cleared his throat. He brought the phone to his ear, opened his mouth, and heard a chuckle.

_“I really like your mother.”_

Superhearing. Right. Dammit.

“Yeah, she should be a comedian,” Eren muttered, rubbing absently at the marble countertop, scowling at his finger.

_“I was just calling to check in. How are you doing?”_

“Fine,” he lied, rubbing harder, as if doing so would allow him to rub right into the marble.

 _“You’re a terrible liar,”_  was Levi’s response. He didn’t sound angry, or even annoyed, at having been lied to. He’d sounded perfectly normal, as if he was used to Eren’s lies by now. Almost like he expected them.

“What am I supposed to say?” Eren asked quietly, turning to make sure no one was within earshot. His mother _could_  be right around the corner, but if he mumbled and kept his voice down, she wouldn’t hear him. “After everything that happened, I don’t even know where to start. I think I need therapy.”

_“I know a good psychologist.”_

“Are they like you?”

_“Yes.”_

“Then how is that helpful?” Eren asked with a sigh, rubbing at his face with his free hand.

_“Being like me doesn’t make him a bad psychologist. It just makes him unavailable three nights a month.”_

Eren let out a small laugh. “You make it sound like a period.”

_“Don’t compare my moon cycle to a girl’s period, fuckface!”_

Another laugh escaped him at the word ‘cycle’ because that made him think of a menstrual cycle and he compared the two all over again. He could hear Levi’s annoyed breathing on the other end, but it sounded like he was going to let him have his laugh.

Leaning his head against the cabinet, Eren closed his eyes once the laugh began to diminish. “How do you always make me feel at ease?”

_“I don’t know. Probably the same way you make me feel panicked and anxious.”_

Eren frowned at that, but he didn’t press and Levi didn’t continue. They were silent for a little while longer until Levi spoke again.

_“Erwin wants to know if you’re coming. Sunset is at eight forty-seven tonight.”_

Glancing at the time again, Eren saw it hadn’t moved much since the beginning of the call. He still had plenty of time to head out there.

“I’m still thinking,” he said quietly.

Levi said nothing, which was a little confusing. He seemed to be flip-flopping between wanting Eren to come out, and wanting him to stay far, far away. He supposed he was worried about Eren getting hurt, but also curious about why he hadn’t been attacked the previous night.

Eren was a little interested, as well, but not enough to want to go out there.

_“I’ll let him know you’re not coming. We’re going to be heading down around seven thirty. Always better to be safe than sorry.”_

“Right.” Eren looked at the time again, rubbing his finger along the marble harder. “Sorry. I just—what does it even matter? I mean, it’s not like me not getting killed by you guys is going to help you in the long run.”

_“That’s true, but you could save someone’s life if I ever escaped.”_

For some reason, hearing that made Eren’s stomach twist, thoughts going to his mother alone at work in the middle of the night. She didn’t do the night shift often, but occasionally she covered a portion of it. What if she was there, alone, and Levi showed up? What if she was calling for help? Eren would be too afraid to go and save her if he didn’t know he’d be okay.

He could let his mother die because he was too afraid.

Closing his eyes and resting his forehead against the cabinet once more, he scowled and grit his teeth.

“Give me an hour.”

_“I didn’t say that to make you feel like you had to come.”_

“I know. I just—give me an hour.” Eren hung up.

The second he did, he felt ready to be sick. He didn’t want to go, he didn’t, but he was scared. Scared for his family, his friends. If he could somehow control the wolves, he could keep the town safe if something ever happened.

Pulling away from the cabinet, he rubbed at his face and turned, then let out a shout and clutched at his chest, feeling his heart pounding double-time.

“Stop _doing_  that to me!” Eren practically shouted at Mikasa.

“Who were you talking to?” she asked, ignoring his anger. She didn’t ever react to it anymore, since she was so used to it.

“What? No one. Who cares?” Eren pushed past her, feeling jumpy and anxious. “Where’s mum?”

“Upstairs.”

He moved through the house to the stairs, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds. Mikasa was following behind him, looking bored, but obviously curious. He mostly ignored her but was forced to stop when the phone rang again.

Wondering if it was Levi telling him not to come anymore, Eren rushed back down the stairs, forcing Mikasa to shift aside so he didn’t bowl her over. He raced into the kitchen and grabbed the phone, putting it to his ear.

“Yeah, hello?”

_“What happened to your phone? I’ve been texting and calling for hours.”_

Dammit. Not Levi.

“Annie. Hey.” He heard Mikasa make a noise behind him, and he turned to see her walking away, clearly uninterested in this conversation. “Yeah, I lost it. Sorry.” Eren rubbed at his face. “I’m gonna try and get a new one asap.”

_“Getting forgetful over there. What’s up with you lately?”_

_Oh you know,_  Eren thought. _Working myself to death, falling for a murderer, hanging out with Werewolves. The usual._

“Just... not doing so well,” he muttered, returning to rubbing at the counter with his finger.

_“Hm. Did you wanna hang out tonight? I heard you weren’t working so thought I’d see if you wanted to watch a movie. You could stay over after.”_

“A movie?” He almost said yes immediately before remembering he’d literally just promised Levi he would be at his place within the hour. “I can’t. Trust me, I’d love to, but I can’t.”

The annoyed sigh he received in response to that made him almost feel guilty. _"_ O _f course.”_

“I’m sorry. Raincheck?”

 _“You say that a lot,”_  she said coldly. _“Have fun with your plans.”_

She hung up before he could say anything else and he let out a sigh, hanging up and rubbing the back of his neck. He turned to leave, heading back up the stairs to find his mother. Mikasa was sitting with her in the den, watching television.

Deciding to spend more time having a panic attack in his room, he went back to lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He kept an eye on the time, not wanting to be late, and when it neared an hour since Levi’s call, Eren grunted and stood up, wandering back to the den to tell his mother he was going out, trying to ignore the rising panic in his chest.

“Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I’m going out.” Normally, Eren wouldn’t tell her since he was old enough to make his own decisions, but given how worried she’d been all day, he felt like leaving without a word might cause her some concern.

Besides, if he died, he wanted to have said bye to her one last time.

“Oh.” She seemed startled, picking up the remote and muting the television. “Are you sure? You had a rough night, perhaps it’d be best if you stayed home.”

 _You have no idea,_ Eren thought with a wince. “It’ll just be a few hours. I’ll be back before midnight.”

“All right.” She eyed him nervously, but didn’t say anything else.

Eren turned and headed for his room, hearing the couch creak and then Mikasa was following behind him. He knew he’d be with the two wolves for a while so he felt it would be best to bring some form of entertainment. He grabbed the most recent of Levi’s books that he’d started and shoved it into his backpack. He didn’t want to risk bringing his laptop, just in case, and he no longer had a phone so the book would have to do.

“Where are you going?” Mikasa asked while Eren looked around his room for some other form of entertainment.

“Just out.”

“Annie’s?” she asked. He didn’t answer, but that was probably a good thing. She’d assume his silence meant yes. “I’ll come with you,” Mikasa said, following after him while he headed downstairs.

“No, it’s okay, I’m good by myself.” Eren wandered into the kitchen and opened the pantry, grabbing a box of crackers and a bottle of water. He debated grabbing some coffee, then decided it would be best to so he began hunting for a thermos.

“I have a bad feeling, Eren. I’m coming with you.”

“This isn’t exactly something I want you coming to,” Eren insisted, grabbing one of the thermoses at the back of the cupboard and moving to the coffee machine. It was a good thing their family were coffee addicts, or it’d have been empty at this hour.

“Where are you going?” she asked again.

“Just—out.” He brushed past her while screwing the lid on his thermos. He’d almost exited the kitchen when she touched his arm, making him stop.

When he turned to her, she looked almost sad. “It goes both ways, you know,” she said quietly. “I’m here for you, too.”

It made his chest constrict at her words, feeling guilty that she felt like he couldn’t talk to her. Anything else, he would, but he’d promised Levi and Erwin, and he didn’t want to get murdered. Besides, it wasn’t his secret to tell, so it was safer for him to just... lie.

Lie through his teeth.

“I’m sorry, I just—I’m going out. You know...”

She frowned. “Like—a date?”

“Sure,” he muttered. “Like a date.”

“With Annie?” she looked ready to be sick.

“What? No. I’m going out with Levi.”

“Oh.”

Now she looked embarrassed, as if realizing she’d been trying to invite herself along on a date. Eren felt bad that she thought she’d been encroaching on something private, especially since she wasn’t. But if she thought he was going on a date, at least it meant she wouldn’t come looking for him.

Then again, he could tell she didn’t quite believe him. He supposed it made sense. After all, she’d heard him on the phone with Annie, and he often omitted information to both Mikasa _and_  Annie when he was referencing the other. Not to mention as far as she knew he was terrified of Levi, so she probably thought he was lying.

She didn’t say anything about it though and just gave him a concerned look.

“Be careful. I have a bad feeling about tonight.”

“Yeah,” Eren muttered, turning to head for the front door. “Me too.”

* * *

Eren’s eyes began to glaze over before he forced them to focus once more, watching Erwin and Levi play some kind of card game. He wasn’t sure what it was, but they would each put down a card and one of them would pick it up and add it to their pile. If he’d still had his phone, he’d have looked it up, but he didn’t.

Something which he’d reminded Erwin of multiple times since his arrival. The man wouldn’t be able to get out as easily since he’d broken the lock, so Eren would have time to run if need be.

“So what do you guys do when you’re alone?” he asked, forcing his eyes to stay focussed when they began to glaze over again.

“I usually write,” Levi said with a scowl, watching Erwin pick up a bigger stack than usual. “I just put the laptop outside the cage when I feel the change coming so it doesn’t get damaged.”

“I read,” Erwin supplied, the two of them beginning to put a card down each and pick up the pile. “But sometimes other pack members are around and we play cards until the change happens. It’s safe to leave cards in the cage with us.”

“What are you guys playing, anyway?”

“War,” Levi informed him, turning to look at him. His eyes were on the book in Eren’s hand, but he didn’t say anything and went back to his game.

Eren wanted to be embarrassed about it, but he was still too nervous about what was coming. He didn’t want to be there, but he also knew it would just be the one time. It would be fine. He was just going to sit there, across the basement, on the stairs. He was going to watch, and that was it.

He figured he could leave around eleven or so, get home in plenty of time before midnight. He didn’t want his mother to worry about him. They didn’t need him there the _whole_  night, just enough to see what was going on. With both him _and_  the wolves.

His eyes shifted to the camera they’d set up in the corner, sitting on a tripod. It had been Erwin’s idea, wanting to ensure they caught everything on tape so they could play it back later. Eren hoped he knew what he was doing, people posted all kinds of things on the internet and the last thing he needed was people thinking Werewolves were real. He didn’t think the world was ready for that.

 _He_  certainly wasn’t ready for it, but he hadn’t exactly been given a choice.

Sighing and grabbing his water bottle, he unscrewed the lid and took a sip just in time for Erwin and Levi to stiffen. He brought the bottle away from his mouth and wiped his sleeve along his lips to catch any stray droplets.

“Is it time?” he asked.

Levi let out a grunt in response, the two men putting their cards down and beginning to strip. Eren avoided watching, finding it weird enough without staring while they took their clothes off. He heard thumps and chanced a look over, seeing that they’d both thrown their clothing just outside the cage. Maybe they tended to rip them to shreds when they remained inside the cage.

Erwin had moved to the left side of the cage, crouching on all fours and breathing hard. Eren’s gaze shifted to Levi, who was on the other side of the cage near the back wall. He had his hands braced against it between the bars that covered the area, and his breathing was slow and steady.

Eren hadn’t really thought much about the cage itself since knowing of its existence, but it wasn’t until his arrival earlier that he realized why Erwin and Levi hadn’t touched it before. Apparently it was made of silver—which meant it had probably cost a fucking _fortune_ —which was one thing the books _had_  gotten right about Werewolves. Allergic to silver. Levi usually used gloves to get in and out, but since Eren was there, he was the one who’d locked them in—complete with tapping the cylindrical lock in place with the screwdriver and hammer. He’d left the gloves near the cage entrance since he’d be gone by morning, but getting them in had been relatively easy.

He sat watching the two men while they got ready for their change, and for a few long seconds, nothing happened. At first he thought maybe it was a false start, but then Erwin’s back arched and he cried out. Levi soon followed, hands curling against the wall and breathing coming faster.

It was horrible to listen to and Eren ended up looking down at his book instead, not wanting to witness it a second time. He covered his ears—knowing it was childish, but unable to help it—when they began crying out more frequently. He didn’t want to hear the bones crack and the skin ripping. It was bad enough he’d done so once, that was more than enough.

He could feel his heart beginning to pick up its pace, thoughts returning to the night before, and to earlier that day. Panic was slowly but steadily rising inside him and he wondered what the fuck he’d been thinking, coming there, pretending everything was fine. Pretending he could actually sit here without freaking out.

 _Calm down,_ he ordered himself, closing his eyes. He’d survived an entire night alone in a locked room with Levi, whatever happened today, it had to be safer than that. They were in a cage, and he was out here. He was fine. _Fine_.

Forcing himself to stop thinking, he peeked open an eye and caught sight of Levi still half-transformed, looking like he was in a particularly large amount of pain. He shut his eyes again and began counting slowly. After having counted to two-hundred in his head, Eren finally glanced up and lowered his hands from his ears. They were both still changing, but it looked to be close to the end because all they did was growl and snap their jaws at each other. Eren folded his hands around his book, eyes on the two wolves, trying to stay calm.

“This is the fucking weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Seeing it one time could allow him to convince himself he was hallucinating. Seeing it twice was a little harder. They’d legitimately turned into wolves.

Again.

Eren watched them both seem to get used to their surroundings, and bodies, because for a few seconds neither moved. Levi was the first to turn his head, maybe because he was smaller and could change more easily. He was jet black with the same yellow eyes as the night before.

Erwin’s wolf form was a little more sandy. Not blond, like his hair, but more like a darker tone than a golden retriever’s. He was still facing the wall, making weird hacking sounds as if he were coughing.

Levi wandered closer to the cage door, blinking slowly while watching Eren, head cocking to one side. He knew it was stupid, but Eren couldn’t help but feel like Levi reminded him of a dog, so he just waved at him while the wolf sat down on its haunches, staring at him.

For about fifteen seconds, everything was perfectly fine. Levi sat there and watched Eren, and everything seemed to be going exactly as it had the night before, barring the whole lying on top of him thing.

Then Erwin turned around, and that completely changed.

The other wolf’s teeth bared and a loud growl escaped it, the sandy-coloured beast stalking forward and snapping its jaws. Levi was in front of Erwin instantly, back to Eren and a low growl sliding up its throat.

Erwin snapped back, yellow eyes locked on Eren, and the wolf began to move to one side, as if trying to get past Levi. The smaller wolf followed, snapping and growling angrily, keeping its body between Erwin and Eren.

Nevermind that they were in the cage, the wolves didn’t seem to really acknowledge that.

“Huh,” Eren said, watching the two wolves play some weird game of follow the leader. Levi seemed intent on keeping Erwin away from Eren, and yet Erwin himself looked determined to eat him.

So it wasn’t about Eren. Or, if it was, it only affected Levi. Well, at least it was the one who lived in town that didn’t seem interested in eating him. That made him feel a little better.

Eren began to open his book, figuring he should stay at least a few more minutes, but it flew out of his hands when he jumped, looking up at the cage. Erwin had thrown himself against the metal bars, a loud whimper of pain escaping the sandy wolf. Eren saw some of the fur on its face and side had burned off and he figured the cage had burned him. He didn’t actually know what silver did to Werewolves, but apparently it hurt.

He was about to bend down to get his book when Levi leapt onto Erwin’s back and sank sharp teeth into the sandy wolf’s neck. There was a howl of pain and anger, then the two wolves were fighting, snapping their jaws at one another and rolling around on the hard basement floor.

Eren’s chest constricted when Erwin threw Levi into the back wall and a pained yelp left the smaller wolf. It struggled to get to its feet, but didn’t succeed, growling and almost barking at Erwin’s back while the larger wolf stalked forward.

It stopped just before the gate and then plowed into it with so much force that Eren heard metal creaking. There was a growl after that, the sandy wolf attempting to rub its muzzle against its leg, as if to soothe the pain, but it didn’t last long and then hurled itself at the front of the cage again, yellow eyes locked on Eren.

Ever so slowly, green eyes rose to the top of the cage, checking the supports that kept it where it was. They were beginning to bend, which meant a few more hits and the entire front of the cage was going to come crashing down.

“Oh.” It was all his brain could supply him with. Thankfully, it was smart enough to keep the important words at the forefront, as well.

_Run! Run now!_

Eren leapt to his feet and raced up the stairs, hearing Erwin slam against the front of the cage a second time.

“Oh shit, oh _shit_!” Eren flew through the basement door and slammed it behind him, racing for the front door. He tripped over the end of a rug in the hallway, falling hard, but regained his footing quickly and slammed into the front door. His hands were shaking while he wrestled with the lock, getting it turned in time to hear a large crash from downstairs.

“Oh fuck me! Oh shit! _Shit_!” He got the door open and bolted out of the house, slamming it behind him. The more obstacles between him and Erwin, the better.

Racing towards his truck, his shaking hands struggled to get the door unlocked but he managed it seconds before the front door exploded off the house, raining down splinters over the porch.

“Oh shit!” Eren threw himself into his truck and shut the door, locking it urgently, as if worried Erwin would magically know how to open a car door while in wolf form and lacking opposable thumbs.

He was lying on his stomach across the front seats and struggling to calm himself down enough to start the car. His hand was on the button to start the ignition when he paused, his panicked brain managing to calm for half a second to consider something.

If he drove away, wouldn’t that mean Erwin and Levi would either chase after him or run off into the forest? If they did that, there ran the risk of them hurting someone else. What if they broke into Traute’s house down the street and murdered him and his family? Or worse, they went further? What if they ended up at Armin’s house? Or Jean’s? Or Eren’s own house?

What if they just ran and ran and killed everyone who was still outside right now? It was probably only just past nine by now, there would still be tons of people out on the street. It would be a bloodbath.

Erwin had said that they lost control when they saw humans. If he just stayed in the truck, but kept himself in their line of sight, then maybe they would be distracted enough by trying to get to him that they wouldn’t wander off to kill someone else.

Did he like this plan? _Hell_  no! Hell fucking no he didn’t like this plan!

But he wasn’t willing to let anyone else get hurt. He wasn’t going to let Levi and Erwin run into someone else and murder them. So he’d tough it out, and beat Erwin with a stick in the morning for this.

Yes, he acknowledged that it was his own decision to show up, but he also wouldn’t have been thinking about it if not for Erwin asking him to and Levi explaining the reason behind it. It was harder to be mad at Levi because it was obvious he really _hadn’t_  wanted Eren to show up.

It took all his willpower to pull his hand away from the ignition and he grit his teeth before slowly shifting so he was crouching on the floor in front of the passenger seat, pushing the chair back so he had more room.

“Okay. Okay,” he whispered to himself, trying to psych himself up. Taking a few more little breaths, he peeked carefully through the passenger side window, eyes shifting along the dark forest entrance. What if they’d already left? What if Erwin and Levi were halfway to town by now and—

A scream tore itself up Eren’s throat and he scrambled away from the passenger side when Erwin’s snarling face appeared in the window. The wolf was jumping to get up high enough to reach it and when it became clear that wasn’t working, Eren watched it move away and then race forward, slamming against the side of the truck.

“Jesus shit!” Eren shouted when the entire thing rocked and the passenger side window smashed. He felt the truck land back on all four wheels just in time for Erwin to make a flying leap at the broken window.

“Shit! Shit!” Eren screamed, scrambling to get the opposite door open when the wolf managed to get part of its upper body into the car through the window. There was a horrible screeching sound, evidently the back claws trying to find purchase on the side of the truck to pull itself in.

Erwin was snapping its jaw at Eren, drool flying and yellow eyes locked on its prize.

Eren was trying to get the door behind him open while keeping an eye on Erwin but before he managed it, there was a yelp and Erwin flew sideways, something small and black slamming into the other wolf from the side.

It felt like Eren’s heart was going to beat itself right out of his chest and he strained to listen, hearing growling and snapping, the sound of two wolves fighting again. Whatever had delayed Levi had obviously been taken care of because Eren cautiously shifted a little closer to the window just enough so he could see what was happening in the side mirror.

Levi was on top of Erwin, biting at the other wolf’s throat and tugging hard. Shit, were they going to kill each other? Did wolves usually fight like this when they turned?

The sandy wolf pulled a very human move and used its back legs to push at the wolf on top of it, sending Levi flying away and landing in a heap by the house. Then Erwin was up once more, slamming against the side of the truck. Eren scrambled into the back seat where there weren’t any broken windows yet and curled up on the floor behind the driver’s seat. His eyes caught sight of the poster tube his mother had given him a few days before and, despite how ridiculous it was, having _some_  kind of weapon would make him feel better so he picked it up and wielded it like a bat.

Another scream left him when the truck rocked ominously once more, two wheels coming straight off the ground.

“Oh fuck I’m gonna die!” Eren shouted, the entire truck jarring all the bones in his body when it landed once more. “I’m so fucking dead!”

More growling and fighting from outside, another pained yelp, and the beating to his truck started once more. After a particularly hard hit, Eren felt the truck come off the ground but instead of beginning to fall once more, it began to tip the other way.

“No. No, no, no! No!” He let out another shout when the truck landed on its side and began tipping backwards. He wouldn’t survive in the damn thing if it ended up upside down so he stood up, feet on the glass window of the driver’s side back seat, and shifted his weight forward, trying to get the truck back on its wheels.

A loud thump sounded above him and he froze, heart hammering in his chest. Shifting his gaze to the left, he saw Erwin’s head poking through the broken passenger side window, eyes locked on him.

Just when it looked like the wolf was about to scramble into the truck, Levi appeared and was biting at the injury already present on the sandy wolf’s neck. There was a howl of pain and the wolves both toppled off the side of the truck.

Unfortunately for Eren, the momentum of that had the entire vehicle creak ominously before it started tipping again.

“Oh no, no! No! No, no, come on!” Eren shouted, trying to counter-act the balance, but his attempt was too late or he just didn’t have the weight for it. With another scream that sounded much too high and he would’ve been embarrassed about under different circumstances, the truck landed with a jarring crash on its roof and every single side window broke. Glass exploded both inwards and outwards, some of it biting into Eren’s skin while he toppled over with the truck.

It felt like something was pressing on his lungs and he coughed, groaning and twisting onto his stomach to try and get his bearings. Glass bit into his bare skin and his hand searched for the pathetic poster tube weapon, closing around it and dragging it closer while he breathed hard and looked around for the wolves.

Thankfully, the windshield was still intact, though there were spiderweb cracks criss-crossing along it. It wouldn’t take much for it to break, just one good hit from a Werewolf. The back window was mostly shattered, but it was relatively small compared to the other windows, so it wasn’t as much of a concern.

Levi’s tail flicked in the back left-hand window, a growl escaping him. Eren could see Erwin pacing pack and forth a few feet away, growling and snarling at Levi, obviously displeased with being blocked from its prey. There was red staining Erwin’s fur, and he could tell the smaller wolf wasn’t putting weight on one of its back legs. Both of them were badly injured from their constant fighting.

It was weird, though. Since the beginning, the only one trying to get to Eren to eat him was Erwin. Levi hadn’t made any attempts to hurt him at all. In fact, Levi seemed completely determined to _protect_  Eren, no matter the cost, and he had no idea why. He was grateful as fuck, but still didn’t understand why.

The two wolves played a little game with one another, Erwin constantly trying to get through to where Eren was while Levi blocked the other wolf’s attempts. This went on for about five minutes before Erwin turned and raced towards the forest, disappearing in the trees. Levi followed immediately, but Eren called out to him.

“Levi, don’t! Don’t follow him!”

The wolf skid to a halt just short of the forest. It didn’t turn to look at Eren, but it growled low in its throat and paced back and forth for a few seconds. Eren watched, trying to keep an eye out for Erwin when he heard a sound on the other side of the car. He twisted and managed to yank his feet up, bending his knees, and shove the poster tube right in Erwin’s face when the wolf tried to force its way into one of the broken windows. It had only been stopped because the frame was compromised and it’d gotten stuck.

“Get away from me! What is your damage!” Eren shouted, voice strained and being pushed back against the glass-covered interior roof of the truck. The poster tube was beginning to bend and Eren let out another shout when Erwin almost caught one of his legs between sharp teeth.

Then Levi was there again, tackling Erwin away, biting at his face, head butting him away from the truck. Then the black wolf’s tail was in the window again, a low growl escaping him.

This was going to be a fucking long as hell night.

Eren wished he’d stayed home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE TRUCK! NOT THE TRUCK!!!!!
> 
> More Erwin hate this chapter, I'm assuming -evilcackle-


	10. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

Levi’s mouth tasted funny. It tasted... almost metallic, like the feeling he got whenever he bit into his tongue too hard. He did his best to ignore it, inhaling deeply and rolling over. It smelled good. Like dry earth and freshly watered plants. And the breeze felt nice against his skin. His left leg was bothering him, but the pain was so muted by how good he felt right then that he tried to ignore it.

He’d love to continue sleeping, but the sunlight was making that difficult. Not to mention the birds chirping. That was one thing he didn’t like about his new home: the birds. They were always loud, though today they seemed louder than usual. Almost like they were right on top of him.

Letting out another slow breath, he wondered what time it was and figured he should at least put clothes on and get to bed if he wanted to sleep some more. Struggling to force his brain back to wakefulness, Levi’s eyes slowly blinked open, wincing at the sunlight stabbing at his retinas. He shifted on the hard earth and forced himself into a seated position when he froze.

His eyes were locked on an entire forest of trees, hands digging into damp earth and birds chirping somewhere overhead. Sunlight was streaming through the branches, and the longer he stared, the faster his heart beat.

He was outside. Jesus _fucking_  Christ, he was outside!

“Eren.” The name escaped him like a plea and Levi leapt to his feet, pain shooting up his left leg now that he’d put weight on it. He didn’t stop to investigate what was wrong, he just spun in a circle and inhaled deeply, trying to locate which direction he’d come from. Upon figuring it out, he began to run, slapping tree branches out of his face and leaping over stumps and other various forest shrubbery.

He made it back to the edge of the woods that surrounded his property and skid to a halt just beyond its border. His heart sank into the very bottom of his stomach at the sight of Eren’s truck.

It was upside down, the sides of it completely battered and scratched up. Most of the windows were broken and even from where he stood, he could smell it.

Blood.

_Eren’s_ blood.

“No. No!” Levi’s legs began moving before he’d even decided to take a step forward and he raced across his front yard, heart jackhammering in his chest and bile rising in his throat. “No, no, no!” He fell to his knees, skidding along the grass and bent down, looking through one of the broken windows.

Eren was lying on his side, back against the top of the two front seats, holding what looked like a poster tube in his hands. The poster tube was covered in blood, and more of it decorated the inside of the truck.

“Eren,” Levi started to reach in to grab at him, praying to God he wasn’t dead. He could be turned, that was fine, Levi could live with that. But if he was dead...? Fuck, he _couldn’t_  be dead! “Eren!”

Levi’s head hit the bottom part of the door when he jumped, Eren having jerked up as much as was possible in the confined space with a terrified shout and wielding his poster tube like a weapon. He breathed hard for a few seconds before turning to look out at Levi, his brain seeming to try and focus on what he was seeing.

“Is it morning?” Eren asked and it made Levi’s stomach twist uncomfortably when he saw the other’s hands shaking around the makeshift weapon he held.

“Yeah. It’s morning,” he said as calmly as he could, slowly reaching into the car and putting one hand on Eren’s closest calf. “It’s okay, it’s over.”

Eren stared at him for a few more seconds, his breathing laboured, then he nodded and rested his head back down, dropping the poster tube so he could cover his face with both hands. Levi saw various cuts all over the back of his hands and fingers, and tried to do a mental inventory of his injuries. It was difficult, because all he could smell was the blood and it was making something inside him scream hysterically. Eren was injured. It didn’t matter how small the injury was, he was still injured.

He wanted to climb into the truck and hug him, rub his back and insist he was okay, that everything was okay, but he couldn’t. He didn’t know if his presence would be welcome so he just tightened his grip on Eren’s calf and struggled to breathe through his mouth. The smell of his blood was really making his brain panic.

“Are you okay?” Levi asked when Eren’s breathing seemed to be slowing. He realized it was a completely ridiculous question to ask, but he had to ask it. He was scared to find out one of them had bitten or scratched him. What if Eren was going to turn? Levi would never forgive himself if he put someone else through that pain. And worse still: It didn’t mean Eren would _survive_  the change.

Very few people did.

The thought made his gorge rise and his hand tighten, but he forced the sick feeling away, trying to stay focussed. Trying to make sure Eren was okay.

“Eren,” he said sharply, seeing the other flinch. “Eren, talk to me. Are you okay? Did one of us get you?”

“Am I okay?” Eren asked, hands leaving his face. He’d left behind a small streak of blood on the right side of his face and it made Levi’s chest constrict painfully. “No, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure I’m very _not_  okay.” His breathing was coming faster again. “That was _not_  an okay way for me to spend my night!”

“Eren. Eren, listen to me,” Levi said, voice much calmer than he felt. “You need to slow your breathing or you’re going to hyperventilate again. Come on, let’s get you out of the truck.”

“No, no, no! No, this place is safe! The truck is a safe place!”

“Eren, you’re injured and the area is covered in glass. Please just—please come out.”

Levi reached in his other hand for Eren, watching the brunet stare at it for a few seconds. He’d just started to hold out his own hand to grab it when a shout reached them and he retreated it once more.

“Eren! Eren! Levi!”

Levi felt rage boiling up inside him at the sound of Erwin’s voice. He wanted to be mad at him, to yell at him, to insist this was all his fault. He didn’t have time right now. Right now, Eren was more important.

He heard pounding footsteps behind him from the trees, a low curse, and then Erwin was beside him, peering in through the front window. He let out a relieved sigh when he saw Eren awake.

“Eren, thank God. Are you okay?”

Levi saw something in Eren’s eyes shift, and when he opened his mouth, the words exploded from it and they didn’t stop.

“Am I okay? Am I _okay_?! No I’m not fucking okay! I mean, physically I’m probably okay, but I mean, maybe, I don’t know, when I ran down the corridor I fell and hurt my knee, and it’s gonna bruise, and it kinda hurt like, a little bit, and then I got thrown around in the car, and there’s glass everywhere, and I cut my hands, and there are cuts everywhere and they sting, but whatever, it’s fine, they’re just little things, I’ll be okay. But yeah, like, physically I’m okay, but mentally? Mentally, I’m very _not_  okay right now, I mean, I was stuck! I was stuck! In a truck! All night! _All night_! With these two wolves! Just wandering around the truck! All night! All _fucking_  night! And like, one of them is trying to get in and fucking eat me, and the other one is trying to protect me, and I’m just in here, freaking out, because oh my God I’m about to die, and at the same time my brain is like oh my God, Levi is biting Erwin in the face! And Erwin is fucking slamming Levi into the side of the house! And oh my fucking God, they’re gonna murder each other! And I don’t know what’s happening! I don’t know what’s going on! What the hell am I supposed to do?! I mean, I have this poster tube! I have this stupid fucking poster tube, and it’s gonna do dick all! If Erwin gets into the car, this poster tube is gonna do _dick all_! And! My truck is ruined! My brand new truck is completely totalled! You destroyed my truck! You ruined it! Look at my truck! How the fuck am I supposed to drive home with this?! Everybody’s gonna ask me what happened, what am I supposed to tell them? ‘Oh, I got attacked by some mother fucking wolves’?! Speaking of which, what am I supposed to tell my parents?! They just bought me this truck! It’s brand new! _And_! They expected me home hours ago! I wasn’t supposed to be out all night! What am I gonna tell them I did all night?! What _did_  I do all night?! I was stuck in a fucking truck surrounded by wolves, but I can’t tell them that, so I can’t tell them what I fucking did! They’re gonna ask me what I did and what do I tell them? I don’t know! I can’t tell them! I wasn’t supposed to be out all night, I was supposed to be out for a little bit to watch you guys do your thing, and then you guys fucking broke out of the cage, and I had to run, and then I fucking banged my knee, my knee _really_  hurts, it’s gonna bruise, and I have to lift and carry stuff all day and my truck is ruined!”

Eren breathed hard, staring at Erwin and Levi in turn for a few seconds while he struggled to get his oxygen supply back in order.

Levi shot a look at Erwin, the blond staring back helplessly. Eren was really freaked out, though to be fair, he had reason to be. Levi was more concerned that they might’ve broken him.

“You’re paying for the truck,” Levi informed Erwin, shifting so he could crawl into the vehicle, being mindful of the glass since he was still naked. He may heal quickly, but he still didn’t feel like getting an injury somewhere sensitive.

“No!” Eren grabbed the poster tube and wielded it again, as if ready to hit Levi with it. “Get out! Get out of my truck!” He got one hit in with it before Levi grabbed the item from his hands and threw it backwards out of the truck.

“Eren,” Levi insisted. “Eren!” He grabbed at the brunet’s wrists when he began batting them like an idiot, wrenching them closer so it would force Eren’s face closer as well. “It’s okay. You’re okay.” He shifted forward, moving to rub his cheek against Eren’s, inhaling deeply to reassure himself that Eren was still here. He was okay. He was _alive_.

He kept his cheek against Eren’s, listening to the other’s short little breaths, coming much too quickly. “It’s over,” he promised in a quiet, soothing voice, “and I promise, you don’t _ever_  have to do this again, okay? But we need to get you cleaned up, so let’s get out of this truck.”

It took Erwin and Levi an additional ten minutes to convince Eren to climb out of the truck, but when he finally did, Levi almost wished he hadn’t. He had numerous cuts along his arms and hands, a few on his face, bruises along various stretches of visible skin, and he kept looking at them both as if they were still wild animals.

They coaxed him into the house and Levi got him into the bathroom for a shower so they could assess the damage once all the blood was washed off. He was standing outside the bathroom door, listening to the shower run, when Erwin walked up the stairs and wandered over to him, holding the camera.

“He could’ve died,” Levi snapped at his friend, gaze locked on the bathroom door.

“I know, I’m sorry. Your cage wasn’t as sturdy as I thought it was.” Erwin hesitated. “We’re going to need to head out sooner rather than later. We need to get back to my house in time for sun down since your cage is out of commission.”

Levi’s gaze shifted to Erwin’s face and torso, where large healing burns could clearly be seen. Werewolves tended to heal faster than normal humans, but even with the level of healing they were going through, Levi could tell the cage had come down because of Erwin. He only had a few burns on his torso and they were in places that made it clear he’d been thrown into the bars. It was fairly obvious who was responsible for the cage coming down.

Erwin also had a few other injuries along his neck and back. One on his face, too. Levi had some bites and scratches, but nothing too painful. His leg hurt the most, but it was likely just a sprain. It’d heal in a few hours.

“We’ll need to get something to cover your front door, too,” Erwin muttered, mostly speaking to himself. Planning. Always planning.

Levi wasn’t in the mood to listen to him so he just snatched the camera from his hands and flipped it open. The battery was blinking at him, but he ignored that and hit the play button. He had to fast forward a little bit since they’d started the camera before entering the cage and the first few minutes were just him and Erwin playing cards with Eren sitting on the stairs.

Erwin shifted behind him to watch as well and Levi started playing it when they were turning. They both watched while Levi acted normally at the sight of Eren, and then Erwin went ape-shit, as was the norm for wolves around humans.

Levi frowned when he watched his wolf form attack Erwin. He watched the entire length of time they were in the frame, the way he kept putting his body between Erwin and Eren, the way he fought with his friend. They’d turned together multiple times before, they’d never had problems. So why this time?

“It almost looks like you’re... _protecting_  him,” Erwin said, watching themselves disappear on the small screen. “I’ve never seen a wolf do that before.”

“Can you ask around?” Levi asked, rewinding slightly to rewatch it. “Someone has to know something.”

“Yeah, tomorrow, after the last change.”

The shower turned off and both looked at the door. After about eight minutes, it opened with Eren towel-drying his hair. He jumped when he saw them both and the fear in his eyes made Levi sick to his stomach. He didn’t want Eren to be afraid of him, and he’d barely even been scared the first night. Levi figured having a wolf trying to eat him all night had changed his perspective a little bit.

Eren had put his ripped and dirty clothes back on, and Levi wished he could offer some of his own clothes, but was worried Eren’s parents would notice. He didn’t want Eren going home like that but for the moment, he had no other choice. If he looked battered and bruised but his clothes were fine, that would likely raise more questions than Levi wanted.

“Come on, let’s make sure you don’t have any serious injuries.” He reached out and gently touched Eren’s elbow. The brunet let him. Levi wasn’t sure he would.

It was obvious Eren was most uncomfortable around Erwin so the blond man tried to keep his distance, but he followed along anyway while Levi led him downstairs to the kitchen. He sat Eren down in a chair and looked him over thoroughly, glancing at Eren’s face occasionally and seeing him wince when he touched certain areas. There were an alarmingly large number of cuts, but most of them were small slivers. He also had a few bruises forming, some of them dark and painful-looking, others a little lighter and less concerning.

“I’m not a doctor, but I think you’re okay.” He paused. “Physically, I mean. You should still have your dad check you out, though.”

“What am I supposed to tell him?” Eren asked in a low voice.

“Tell him some big blond idiot was drunk and rammed into your car multiple times trying to kill you.”

“I deserved that,” Erwin muttered quietly. It wasn’t loud enough for Eren to hear, but Levi heard it just fine.

“Come on, I’ll drive you home.” Levi reached up to cup Eren’s face, noticing him flinch, but he didn’t pull away. He considered retreating his hand, but he was already touching him, so he just went through with the action he’d started, rubbing his left palm across his cheek before he stood and straightened out his shirt. “Your parents will be worried.”

“Right.” Eren stood up then, casting a nervous look at Erwin, and not saying anything about Levi’s face-rub. When he exited the kitchen, he stuck remarkably close to Levi.

When Levi told him to wait there while he went to fetch Eren’s things in the basement, the other almost shouted that he wasn’t going to wait anywhere, the fear returning to his eyes. Levi didn’t want him to see how the basement looked right then, feeling like it would only make things worse, so Erwin ended up going downstairs to get his things. He returned quickly with the bag, zipping it up since he’d evidently had to get some items that had fallen out back into it. He held it out to Eren, but Levi took it instead, holding it out to the brunet.

Eren took it, nodding a thanks to Erwin without actually looking at him.

They walked out of the house then, Levi calling back for Erwin to do something about the front door. He led the way to his truck and got behind the wheel, Eren sitting down as well with a wince and holding his ribs.

“Are you—?” Levi forced himself not to finish the question. Eren _wasn’t_  okay. He knew he wasn’t, and it was his fault. He shouldn’t have said anything the night before. Eren hadn’t been planning on coming, Levi’s stupidity had been the reason he’d shown up, and he hated himself for it. If he’d kept his mouth shut...

“Does it hurt?” he finally asked instead.

“I think they might be bruised.” Eren winced and lifted his shirt, as if he could see his bones through his skin. Levi wished he hadn’t, because more cuts and bruises decorated his torso and he forced himself to look away, hands tightening around the steering wheel.

They headed out in silence, driving down Rose street to the main road at the bottom. When Levi eased the car onto the main road, Eren spoke.

“Is it normal?”

Levi turned to Eren briefly before facing forward again, turning slowly at the next street and continuing on to his house. Eren was looking out the window, his chin resting in one hand.

“Is what normal?”

“What you did last night,” he said, still not looking at Levi. “You kept putting yourself between me and Erwin. Every time he came near me, you attacked him.” Eren paused, seeming to hesitate. “Is that... I mean, what _am_  I to you?” He looked at Levi then. “Why are you always around?”

Levi’s hands tightened around the steering wheel again. “I don’t know. I just am. I worry about you, want to protect you.” He stopped himself before saying anything further and when they turned the next corner, Eren cursed and covered his mouth. Levi’s lips pressed into a thin line.

Police cars were stopped outside Eren’s house.

One belonged to Shiganshina, but two of the other ones belonged to the next town over, Stohess.

“I haven’t even been missing that long,” Eren muttered, letting out a sigh while Levi pulled up to the curb and killed the engine.

They exited the truck and the second Eren moved around it, someone screamed his name and Levi watched Mikasa race over to him and practically tackle him off his feet.

“Are you okay? Are you all right? Why are you all injured? Where’s your truck?!”

“Eren.” Carla was there, one hand on her chest and looking relieved. “Honey, are you okay? What happened to you?”

“Why did you guys call Nile?” Eren asked, ignoring their questions and nodding towards where a very relieved-looking Grisha was speaking to the officers. “I was only gone a few hours past when I said I’d be home.”

Carla glanced at Mikasa, who was still crushing Eren against her chest. “Your sister—well, she had a bad feeling last night. Woke up screaming that you were in danger. We couldn’t reach you because you lost your cell, and you didn’t mention where you were headed. We got worried when you didn’t come home when you said you would, so we called around and then finally called Nile at five this morning. He was just about to send someone to Annie’s, and then head up to Levi’s himself, actually, since you spoke to both of them last night and we weren’t sure where you’d gone.” She looked at Levi. “We tried calling, but you didn’t answer.”

“My phone’s been acting up,” Levi lied, ignoring the way Eren glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “I think Eren was in an accident. He should get checked out.”

“Of course.” Carla was rubbing at Eren’s back while Mikasa hugged him tightly. “Where’s your truck?”

“It—I left it at Levi’s. I was in rough shape, I thought it’d be best not to drive home.”

“All right.” She kissed his head. “That’s fine, we can pick it up later.”

“No!” Eren insisted. “Uh, no, it’s okay. We can—I’m okay for a little while.”

“Okay,” she said, looking confused. “Okay, we’ll get it another time. Come on, let’s have your father check you over.” She smiled at Levi. “Thank you, Levi. We appreciate your help.”

“Of course. I’ll talk to you later, Eren.”

The brunet nodded but didn’t look at him. He just walked closer to the house, one of the officers moving to speak to him and clapping him on the shoulder. Even from a distance, Levi saw him wince in pain. The Werewolf walked slowly back to his truck, listening in on the conversations, but no one suspected anything out of the ordinary had happened. They mostly asked Eren if he was feeling okay, and Grisha said they should go inside so he could look him over.

Levi took his time getting into his truck and driving away. By the time he was at the end of the street, the two police cruisers from out of town were pulling out to leave, only the one from Shiganshina sticking around. Levi’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.

Whatever happened, he and Erwin would have to move Eren’s truck. If people saw it completely smashed to shit in his front yard, questions would arise and he really didn’t need more people finding out what he was.

* * *

Eren stared down while his father finished up with the last of his injuries, making sure he was truly all right before sitting back in his seat and removing the latex gloves he’d been wearing, tossing them to join some bandages and wipes in a biohazard bag. He was probably going to get rid of the bag at work.

It was a strange thing, seeing that bag of gauze and bandages, covered in blood and disinfectant. Eren had gotten hurt numerous times in his youth, but this was the second time this month where his father was treating an injury that was bad enough to warrant a biohazard bag. It made Eren feel sick to his stomach to see it, but he didn’t say anything.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Grisha said in a low voice, sealing the bag and setting it aside. “That’s the important thing.”

Eren just made a noise of acknowledgement, staring down at his fingers. They were littered with small cuts, some deep, some not. It hurt when he closed his hands into fists, so he kept them loose, staring at them as if he could will them heal faster.

“Eren.” He flinched when a hand fell onto his shoulder, but relaxed immediately afterwards when he realized it was his father and not some weird creepy Werewolf. He looked up at him, his father’s eyes locked on his face, looking concerned.

“You know you can talk to me, right? If something happened, you can tell me.”

“It’s fine,” Eren forced out, feeling his stomach roll over at the words. “I’m sorry about the truck.”

“I don’t give a damn about the truck,” Grisha insisted with a frown. “Trucks are objects, they can be replaced. You’re my _son_.” He shifted his hand from Eren’s shoulder to his face. The action made him tense instantly because that was something he’d noticed Levi doing to him. He knew his father was doing it as a sign of endearment, but it still freaked him out a little bit.

“Eren.” Grisha’s thumb rubbed gently at his cheekbone. “Eren, what really happened last night?”

Eren felt all the air rush out of his lungs at that question, eyes widening ever so slightly and heartrate increasing. “What? What do you mean? I told you, I got hit.”

“I’m a doctor, Eren,” Grisha insisted with a small sigh. “I know what a car accident looks like.” He gave Eren a pointed look. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

This was bad. This was so bad. Eren didn’t know how to handle this. He was a bad liar, everyone knew that. Even _Levi_  knew that, and Levi barely even knew him! How had he thought he could get away with lying to his _family_  about something like being stuck in a truck all night with wolves circling him?!

“I told you,” Eren insisted, voice slightly more strained than usual. “I was in an accident.”

He jumped and tensed further when his father’s other hand fell onto one of his own, thumb rubbing lightly at the ligature marks from the previous day, courtesy of Erwin.

“Interesting kind of accident. Same as yesterday’s?”

Was it possible to throw up from fear? Eren felt like he was about to vomit all over the place. Maybe if he threw up in his father’s face, he would be so disgusted that he would forget this entire conversation in favour of cleaning up and then never speak to Eren again ever for the rest of their lives, that would be terrific!

Grisha sighed when it became clear Eren wasn’t going to answer. He was positive his father was probably growing concerned by the way his questions were forcing Eren’s breathing to increase in frequency and likely didn’t want him to have a panic attack.

He pulled back so that he wasn’t touching Eren anymore, but stayed leaning forward in his seat, hands folded together and forearms resting on his knees, keeping himself close to his son.

“You can talk to me, Eren. If something is happening, if you’re—I don’t know.” Grisha rubbed at his mouth. “This is so much easier to discuss with patients, not with your own son.”

Eren said nothing, watching his father struggle to get whatever words he was trying to say out.

“Was it Levi?”

Eren thought back to the night before, how injured Levi had gotten protecting him from Erwin, biting at his friend’s face, making sure to keep himself between the sandy wolf and Eren’s toppled-over truck.

“No,” he whispered, clenching his hands together.

“Eren—”

“It wasn't. This isn’t about Levi. I got in an accident. Whether you believe me or not, that’s not my problem.” Eren pushed himself to his feet, chair scraping loudly against the kitchen floor. His father straightened in his seat, looking startled, and possibly a little upset. Like he didn’t want to think about Eren lying to him about something so important.

“I’m fine, like you said,” he muttered, moving to exit the kitchen. “I promise, this is nothing. Levi’s fine. It wasn’t him.”

Not _entirely_ , anyway.

He was going to have to learn how to lie better.

* * *

Eren whipped around when he heard the front door to the store open, heart hammering in his chest and hands gripping the canned peaches he was restocking. When his eyes caught sight of who was coming in, he relaxed and returned to what he was doing, feeling like an idiot.

It had been two days since his night in the truck and he hadn’t seen Levi since then. He’d figured he and Erwin would’ve left town for their last night, but he was sure the writer was back by now. On top of that, he had a shift with Eren tomorrow, a fact the brunet wasn’t thrilled about.

Placing the last can of food on the shelf, Eren stared at his hand, watching it tremble. He clenched it into a fist and pressed it against the shelf, closing his eyes and trying to calm down. He was fine. Everything was fine.

“Eren?”

He let out a shout and almost fell off the step stool but grabbed at the shelf to stay upright, heart beginning to slam against his ribs once more. He glanced over his shoulder, still holding the shelf, and saw Jean giving him a weird look.

“I didn’t see you come in,” Eren said, forcing his hands to loosen and clearing his throat, stepping off the small stool and bending down to pick it up.

“Are you okay? Between you freaking out yesterday and Mikasa’s complete meltdown the night before that... what’s going on right now?”

“I don’t know why she freaked out,” Eren said, returning the step-stool to the storage room. He didn’t enter it completely, too scared of getting locked in again, and uninterested in being reminded of the damage Levi had done to the back of the door, forcing him to recall his strength. Instead, he reached around the door and put it down, then pulled out quickly, turning to Jean. “She just had a bad feeling. It happens.”

He ignored the fact that it had happened at the exact same time as he was being attacked by a wolf. Mikasa had always been fairly in-tune when things were wrong with him.

“You’ve been acting weird the past few days,” Jean insisted, following him towards the front. “Are you sure you’re okay? Do you want to talk about your accident?”

“No, I really don’t,” Eren said, moving behind the till and falling down into the chair, crossing his arms. They were still covered in bruises and small cuts from the glass, but they didn’t hurt as much anymore. The cuts would probably heal relatively quickly as most weren’t very deep.

Jean leaned forward on the counter, eying him worriedly. “If something was wrong, you’d tell me, right? You know I’ve got your back.”

“I’m fine, lay off.” Eren rubbed the back of his head, looking anywhere but at Jean. The more people asked if he was okay, the less okay he felt.

He felt insane. Crazy. He felt like he was losing his mind. Werewolves? Really? That was insane. And how had he survived a night in his trashed truck with those beasts right outside? No, he hadn’t. He was fucking dreaming. This was all some elaborate nightmare and he was still waiting to wake up.

Because Werewolves being real was just fucking crazy.

Jean stared at him the entire time it took for the customers in the store to buy their items and leave, without saying a word. He just stood there, staring at him. It made Eren feel even _more_  self-conscious, but he did his best to ignore it and pretend to do paperwork.

About five minutes after the last customers had left, Jean was still staring at him when the door opened once more. Eren turned to look at who had just walked in and felt all the blood drain from his face.

Levi.

Levi was walking in.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, Levi stopping just past the entrance like he always did, and before Eren could stop himself, he blurted out, “Did you come to get dog food?”

“Dog food?” Jean asked, confused. “Did you get a dog?”

“No,” Levi said, voice low and dark.

“Oh.” Jean glanced at Eren while Levi moved further into the store. “Why did you ask him that?” he whispered.

Eren knew that Levi could hear them. No matter how quietly he spoke, Levi could hear them. And he didn’t have an answer. He didn’t know how to answer that question!

“He thinks I’m a whiny bitch,” Levi said from one of the closer aisles, standing in front of the shampoos. “Inside joke.”

“Oh,” Jean said, watching Levi’s back. He waited for Levi to disappear, then leaned forward more on the counter, lowering his voice. It didn’t matter, Eren _knew_ it didn’t matter! “Since when are you two friends?”

“We’re not! We aren’t!” Eren insisted, feeling his throat constrict. “We work together! He works here!”

Jean gave him a weird look. “I know...” He frowned. “Seriously Eren, you’ve been acting really weird lately. _Are_  you okay?” He eyed him for a moment longer. “I’m actually worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” he promised quickly. The need to tell someone was burning on the tip of his tongue, and he knew if he stayed there much longer, with Jean bearing down on him and Levi wandering around the store, he was going to snap. He needed to escape, _now_. “I need to grab something from the office!”

He moved out from behind the till and practically raced to the back of the store. He slammed through the door, shut it and then rested his forehead against the wooden surface, closing his eyes. He felt like he was going to be sick. He knew it was irrational to be scared of Levi, but all he kept remembering when he looked at him was the world tilting while his truck rolled over. Erwin trying to get at him through the window. Glass biting into his hands.

He clenched them into fists, rubbing his forehead against the door. He hated this. He hated that he knew about this. He wished he could just erase his own memory, forget any of this had ever happened.

It took him close to five minutes to convince himself to leave the office but he finally managed it, exiting the small room. When he walked down the aisle towards the front, he noticed Jean wasn’t at the till anymore. His stomach clenched at the thought that he’d left and he moved more cautiously, stopping at the end of the aisle and looking both ways before rushing across the entrance to the till, moving behind the counter.

“Hey.”

Eren jumped and whipped around. Levi was standing on the other side of the counter, having appeared there quickly and silently.

“Where’s Jean?” Eren blurted out.

“He left. Asked me to tell you he had to head out. Why he thinks I’m his secretary, I don’t know, but I’ll have to straighten him out next time I see him.”

“Oh.” Eren’s voice was too high, but he didn’t know how to lower it. “Jean’s kidneys are gross, and no one would want them!”

Levi gave him a weird look, but all Eren could think about was making Jean seem as unappetizing as possible given his comment about ‘straightening him out.’

“Also, he doesn’t shower very often! And he eats a lot of fatty foods, he’s more fat than muscle, really. Completely unappetizing.”

That seemed to get Levi’s brain on the same track as Eren’s and he narrowed his eyes. “I’m not going to eat him. I told you, we don’t eat people.”

_Tell that to the cannibal tribe in your first book!_ Eren thought to himself, but had the good sense not to say so aloud.

He bent down behind the counter to grab at some paperwork and then stood, slapping it onto the counter and beginning to work on it. It was numbers and inventory, which he hated, but any excuse not to speak to Levi any longer.

“How’re your injuries?”

“Good! Great! Barely feel them! Everything’s fine, all good! I haven’t told anyone anything.”

“I know...” Levi sounded a little annoyed.

Eren continued what he was working on, doing his best to ignore Levi glaring holes into the top of his head. When he heard Levi inhale, clearly about to speak again, he slapped his pen down and looked up at the ceiling.

“Right! Tampons! I forgot to restock the tampons!”

He hurried out from behind the counter, rushing towards the storage room at the back. He got the door open, then hesitated before entering it. Realizing he didn’t want to enter it with Levi in the store, he whipped around and jumped when he found Levi right behind him.

“You know what? I’ll do it later.” He moved past Levi, beginning to head for the front once more when a hand closed around his wrist.

He froze.

“Is this how it’s going to be now?” Levi asked, voice hard. “You’re going to avoid me? Pretend everything is fine, when it’s obviously not?”

Eren said nothing, hands curling into fists to stop them from shaking.

“How am I supposed to act?” Eren asked quietly. “My entire life just got turned upside down, and I—I can’t stop thinking about the other night. About being trapped in the truck with Erwin beating on the side trying to get in.” His throat felt tight while he spoke and he ground his teeth together. “I’m not okay, Levi.”

“I know.” Levi’s grip tightened ever so slightly, but it was more in a supportive way than a painful way. They still didn’t look at one another, backs to each other, only Levi’s hand on his wrist keeping them where they were. “I know you’re not, Eren. But you’re not alone in this. What happened was... it was bad, and I know that, but you’re okay and I promise I won’t ever let anything happen to you.”

Eren didn’t know what to say to that so he just stood there, waiting for Levi to speak again.

He didn’t. With a sigh, he released Eren’s wrist and reached up, as if to touch his face. When Eren leaned back slightly, Levi let his hand hover in the air for a moment, and then turned and walked back towards the front. Eren stayed exactly where he was, listening to the front door open, and then shut. He wandered slowly back to the till, as if suspecting it was a prank. When he reached it, he found Levi was gone, but his truck was still in the parking lot.

It was difficult for Eren to go about his nightly business, but he managed to get everything completed accordingly during the shift.

Every time he glanced out the window, Levi’s truck still sat in the lot. It wasn’t until the sun rose and Eren’s shift would be ending that the engine finally started and Levi pulled out.

* * *

Levi scowled down at the floor, eyebrows drawn together and arms crossed. He went over everything in his head, analysing every word, every action. Trying to make sense of it all.

It didn’t work. He could stand there for hours, leaning back against his counter, trying to decipher it all, but it wouldn’t work. It was unheard of, so no matter how hard he thought about it, or how many people he spoke to, the outcome would remain the same.

“You’re sure?” he asked. “They’re not just brushing you off, right?”

“I’m sure,” Erwin affirmed, sitting at Levi’s kitchen table with his folded hands against his lips. “I asked all the pack leaders I know, had them ask around to others I didn’t. Nobody’s heard of this before. A lot of them are actually interested, wanted to know who this kid was and where to find him. It took a lot of work to make sure no one was going to make their way here.” Erwin’s gaze shifted to Levi. “Hanji is chomping at the bit to check out Eren.”

“I’ll bet they are,” Levi muttered, his scowl’s intensity ramping up. “Keep that psycho away from Eren.”

“They understand, they won’t do anything to him.” Erwin let his hands drop but only so that he could place them palm flat on the table, leaning back in his seat.

They were silent, Levi still scowling at the ground. He didn’t understand. Of all the different Werewolves they knew of, it seemed impossible that not _one_  of them had ever experienced this. That nobody had ever even _heard_  of this before.

A wolf spending the night with a human, where the human was fine.

A wolf fighting off _another_  wolf to protect a human, almost at the cost of its own life.

In some ways, Levi felt like his protectiveness of Eren had gotten worse. It had already been bad before, but now he felt like—ever since turning into a wolf in front of him, being around him during the entire experience... it was like his wolf side was also on board with protecting Eren. It was like there were two halves of him and now _both_  were determined to keep Eren safe, which made Levi feel grumpy and irritable whenever he didn’t know where the brunet was.

And sometimes even when he _did_  know where he was. Plus, Eren being scared of him wasn’t helping matters, because Levi was finding it harder to spend time with him. He didn’t like the look of fear on his face whenever he was nearby so he’d been doing his best to keep his distance. Well, in terms of personal space, anyway. He was always around, at the very least, unless something like this came up.

Levi let out a slow, annoyed breath, not wanting to ask this next question but feeling like he had to. He felt stupid asking it, but it was the last option so he grit his teeth and forced the words out.

“It’s not a—you’ve spoken to people with human mates, right?”

Erwin’s look made it explicitly clear that he didn’t like the question. Levi knew it was more the use of his term ‘mate’ than the question itself. Most wolves hated that they couldn’t have relationships, to them it was finding a _mate_. Erwin had given up a long time ago.

“It’s unrelated,” Erwin said, voice dark. “The other wolves I spoke to confirmed that while there is a level of protectiveness, as there always is regardless of relationship, like ours within the pack, even when they turn they still feel the urge to attack. Considering, you should know that better than anyone.”

Levi felt like that was an unnecessary comment. Erwin seemed to think so, as well, giving him an apologetic look as soon as the words had escaped him. He continued without apologizing verbally.

“Whatever this is between you and Eren, it’s something different.”

He hated that this was an unknown event. He hated that nobody could help him with this, figure out what was going on, before Eren got hurt. Not that he’d get hurt, as far as Levi could tell, but he still hated it. And the more protective he got, the stronger his feelings became to the point where he found himself fantasizing about Eren while _awake_ , now. He didn’t want that. He didn’t need that complicating their already complicated relationship.

It was just _hard_  to resist! Eren was a stupid little shit, but he was an _entertaining_  stupid little shit. And he was nice, and funny, and loyal, and really, _really_  enjoyable to look at. Levi wished their entire relationship had started differently. He wished instead of chasing Eren off his property that first day that he’d spoken to him, gotten to know him.

Maybe the instinctual fear everyone felt upon first meeting wolves would’ve disappeared faster for Eren. He had seemed to be getting better around Levi of late, and then the change had happened and now he was more skittish than ever. Not that he blamed him, he acknowledged that Eren was traumatized from his night in the truck, but he still fucking hated it.

“What did Gunther say about Eren’s truck?” Levi asked, while his mind was thinking on the other’s vehicle. He rubbed absently at the mark on his wrist with the opposite thumb, Erwin crossing his arms with a shrug.

“He’s fairly certain it’s a lost cause, but he’ll see if there’s anything he can do. If there isn’t, I might have to buy a brand new truck and just switch out the plates.”

Levi grunted in response, the two of them silent for a few minutes.

“I can’t believe he’s still alive.”

“You’re _lucky_  he’s still alive,” Levi snapped, hands falling back to his sides.

“I understand that, but I am currently more focussed on how incredible it is that he’s alive at all.” Erwin put his hands back on the table. “Levi, he survived two nights _in a row_  with Werewolves. That’s unheard of. And even though you were protecting him the second night, to have him still be alive and relatively unharmed...” Erwin rubbed at his mouth with his hand.

Levi didn’t like the look on his face. He didn’t like the implication of where this was going.

“Never again, Erwin,” he snapped, pushing away from the counter and curling his hands into fists. “We’re not doing this to him again!”

“I understan—”

“Do you? Because you don’t look like you do.”

Erwin watched him for a long while after those words, and Levi knew why. For as long as they’d known one another, anything Erwin said was law. It came not only with being the pack leader, but also because of respect. People respected him, and rightly so. Erwin deserved respect. He was a good person. Levi often challenged him, but it was always in an attempt to find a better solution, and while he didn’t always get his way, he never fully disagreed with Erwin revolving around anything he made a decision on.

But this? Eren? No. Levi wasn’t going to let this turn into an experiment to see how long before Eren cracked. It was already bad enough right now, he didn’t want things getting worse.

Their stand off came to an end when both of them cocked their heads, hearing gravel crunching beneath tires. Someone was driving up to the house.

“Eren?” Erwin asked, frowning slightly.

“No, it’s someone else,” Levi said. He would’ve felt embarrassed at knowing the sound of Eren’s entire existence if not for the fact that it was already explicitly clear that something was up between him and the brunet.

They both waited, listening. A door opened and two feet landed on the hard ground before a loud creaking sound met their ears, and a slam.

“Old vehicle,” Erwin commented.

“Jean.” Levi didn’t know why he was there, but he stalked to the front of the house anyway, reaching the door and throwing it open before Jean had even made it up onto the porch.

He started at seeing Levi suddenly right there, but offered an awkward half-grin all the same. “Hey.”

“What do you want?” Levi asked, not wanting Jean around right now.

“For you to be polite for a change, but I’m not gonna hold my breath on that.”

Levi heard Erwin laugh in the kitchen, but it was too quiet for Jean to pick up so he didn’t comment on it and just scowled at him, waiting for him to explain why he was there. Jean was too busy staring at the door.

“Hey, is that new?”

Trust Jean to notice him getting a new fucking door. The kid was seriously obsessed with him if he could tell his door had been replaced. That could be a problem.

“What do you _want_ , Kirschstein?”

“All right, let’s just get this over with then,” Jean muttered, stuffing his hands in his pockets and staring him right in the eye. Levi could tell he was terrified, but props to the moron because he stuck to it. “What happened to Eren?”

“What?” Levi asked, feeling sweat beginning to form along his spine. Why was Jean asking _him_  that?!

“Eren started getting all weird last week and the day it happened was right after he went out late at night when he got a call from you. Did your date go badly or something?”

Levi stared at him. “Our what?”

“Date.” Jean frowned. “Mikasa said that Eren told her he was going out on a date. With you. We suspected it might’ve been Annie since she called that night, too, but he explicitly said he was going out with you and you drove him home so... Was it you, or...?”

“It was me,” Levi forced out quickly. Too quickly? Jean just looked confused, but the guy was a moron so that was probably how he always looked. “It was—fine. Until his... accident.”

“Yeah, where’s his truck?” Jean turned, looking around. “I thought he drove it up here after it happened.”

“It was towed already.” That, at least, wasn’t a lie. “The giant oaf who hit it offered to pay for the repairs, so it’s in the shop.”

“I’m getting tired of you calling me that,” he heard Erwin say from the kitchen. He ignored him, eyes on Jean, who had now turned back to him with a shrug.

“That’s nice, I guess. But I mean, Eren totalled his car once before and he was okay, so why is he not okay this time? What happened?”

“I don’t know. I’ll talk to him.”

“It’s cool, I can do it. I was just wondering if you knew since you were around when it happened.” Jean rubbed the back of his head, going for apologetic but something in his gaze made Levi feel like he was suspicious. “Sorry for coming by, I’m just... worried. He’s my best friend, and between Mikasa having her freak-out and Eren’s accident and shiftiness... Armin and I don’t know what to do.”

Levi didn’t understand why he was bringing up the little blond weirdo until he glanced up at Jean’s truck and saw him sitting in the passenger seat. How had he not noticed that? Well, they hadn’t been speaking on the way up, and a lot of smells were coming from Jean’s truck, so he’d probably just missed it. Still, he wasn’t happy about his lack of focus.

“Too scared to come out?” Levi asked. He’d tried for teasing, but the look on Jean’s face suggested he hadn’t succeeded and it had probably come off more as defensive.

“You’re a scary guy.” Jean cleared his throat and turned to wander back down the porch steps and towards his truck. He was halfway there when he turned and spoke again. “Hey, can you tell Eren that if you guys are dating, that’s cool and he can just say so? He doesn’t need to lie about that, it’s kind of insulting.”

Levi didn’t respond. He didn’t really know what to say to that. He could only assume it was Eren’s reaction in the store the other night that had made Jean suspect he was being lied to. Which he was, just not about them dating.

Jean climbed back into his truck, slammed the door, and started the engine. Levi strained to hear the conversation while the vehicle pulled away, which was difficult over the roar of Jean’s ridiculously loud engine.

_“What did he say?”_

_“Says he doesn’t know what Eren’s deal is.”_

_“Do you believe him?”_

_“I don’t know, I mean... Eren comes home with ligature marks on his wrists one day, and the next he’s all battered and bruised up? It’s weird. And shit’s been messed up with that whole family since that guy showed up. First his mom with the tattoo and shit, then Mikasa with her panic attacks, and now Eren. I’m just...”_

They’d moved out of range by now and Levi scowled, crossing his arms and leaning against the jamb. He was glad they’d gotten Eren’s truck out of there, because it would’ve been a lot harder to explain all the claw marks and dents in the car if someone saw it. Thankfully, Gunther was in their pack so there was no risk involved there.

He heard Erwin moving in the kitchen, then footsteps approaching from behind, his friend stopping a few paces short of the entrance.

“He’s drawing attention.”

“He’s scared,” Levi shot back instantly, eyes still on the road leading off his property. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Sooner rather than later, Levi. We can’t let this get out.”

“It won’t.”

“You better hope it doesn’t.”

Erwin disappeared back down the corridor and Levi clenched his jaw, eyes narrowing. He didn’t like it, but he’d have to talk to Eren at work again.

It was the only damn place the moron couldn’t escape him.

* * *

“Come on, you stupid thing,” Eren muttered, tapping at the screen of his new phone in annoyance. “Come on, _work_! I swear to God, Tumblr is the only thing that gives me life! Give it to me!” He shook his phone. “Why are you trying to kill me?!”

The app crashed.

Again.

Eren let out a wail of despair and slumped over the counter, annoyed. Work was ten times more boring when he wasn’t entertained, and while he knew he could’ve brought his laptop, he’d been worried about taking it out of the house since the power cable had been finicky lately. He didn’t need something else dying on him, his parents were already trying to hide how pissed they were about the phone and the truck, _neither_  of which were _his_  fault!

Erwin had bought him a new phone—mailed and delivered straight to his house, though he’d still had to go to the mall in the city to get it activated and get a new number—but his parents were still obviously pissed about it.

Not to mention his truck. His brand new truck. Sometimes, he wished he’d just driven away, but other times he was glad he hadn’t. He’d seen first hand how Erwin could be in wolf form, and the more he thought about it, the happier he was that he’d toughed it out. It had all worked out in the end.

Mostly.

If extreme trauma was a good thing.

The door opened then and Eren looked up, a greeting on his lips when the words died in his throat.

Levi was right in front of him.

“Jesus fuck!” Eren flailed out his arms, almost smacking Levi in the face and narrowly missing falling off the chair but only because he’d managed to stand abruptly instead. “Do _not_  do that to me! Not you! You _cannot_  do that to me! What is wrong with you?!” One tanned hand braced against the counter while the other rose to press against Eren’s heart. He was pretty sure Levi had just jump-started his cardiovascular system and he really hadn’t needed that.

“I thought you heard me come in.”

“I–you know, I did, but I also expected you to not be _right in my face_!” Eren insisted, turning to Levi, still struggling to get his breathing back under control. “Jesus. Fuck!” He bent over slightly, hands on his knees, and struggled to inhale more normally.

He was now positive Levi was trying to kill him, because if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t always be giving him heart attacks. Between him and Mikasa, Eren was amazed he wasn’t dead yet.

Letting out a slow breath, he straightened and opened his mouth to ask what Levi wanted, mostly so he could get him out of the store faster, but the words died in his throat when the other man moved around the counter and hopped up onto the back where Eren sometimes sat later in the night.

Eren stared at him, very conscious of the lack of counter separating them. “What are you doing?”

“Your horse came to visit me this morning,” he informed Eren, leaning back against the window and crossing his arms.

“And?” Eren asked, while also silently deciding he was going to murder the hell out of Jean when he saw him later.

“He’s worried about you. So is your little troll friend.”

Eren frowned. “Troll friend?”

“The blond kid with the bowl cut he should’ve gotten rid of at twelve.”

“You mean Armin?”

“Sure, him.”

“Well, what did you say to them?” Eren asked, taking a hesitant seat once more.

“I told them you were trapped screaming in a truck all night while one wolf tried to eat you and the other almost died protecting you.” Levi gave him an annoyed look. “What do you think I told them?”

“Probably not that,” Eren muttered, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Levi just watching him and Eren looking anywhere else while fidgeting and clearing his throat. He glanced at the door every few minutes, praying for someone else to walk in and save him from Levi, but after almost twenty minutes, he realized it was much too late and while he may have the occasional visitor, they were always few and far between after eleven.

“Eren.”

The brunet tried really hard not to let out a whine and very slowly shifted his gaze over to Levi. He was staring at him intently, but despite that, the fear that usually accompanied a stare that focussed wasn’t present.

“Eren, I don’t want you to be afraid of me. I know what happened was awful, and I’m sorry that it happened, but I _can’t_  have you scared of me. I can’t. So I’m going to come here every night u—”

“ _Every_  night?” Eren interrupted, face paling.

“Every night,” Levi repeated, giving him a knowing look, “until you and I can be in the same room together without you wetting your pants. So I’m gonna sit here until you either stop being afraid of me on your own, or you talk to me so we can work through this.” Levi crossed his arms and got more comfortable on the counter.

Eren wondered if his face looked as horrified as he felt. He would be the first to admit that between Erwin and Levi, he felt more comfortable with Levi. Hell, he was even willing to admit that Levi sometimes made him feel _safe_  and calm and just... _better_. But it didn’t stop him from reliving that night in his head every single time he looked at him, and he didn’t like that feeling. He didn’t _want_  to go through that over and over again.

But what was he supposed to do? Realistically, he _worked_  with Levi. They lived in a _really_  small town. And Levi seemed... _interested_  in him. Eren didn’t know what _kind_  of interest, but he was still interested. He wasn’t getting rid of him, and he knew it. And he could _not_  spend another night with Levi as a wolf right now, so whatever happened, he had to at least show progress before the next full moon or they were going to have bigger problems.

“Why did you say it was a date?”

Eren started, his mind having wandered, but he forced his attention back to Levi, looking up into his eyes and blinking. “What?”

“Jean said you told your sister that we were going on a date. Why did you tell her that?”

Was it possible to be terrified of someone and embarrassed at the same time? Because that was how Eren felt. Terrified, but also horrendously mortified.

“I—she wanted to come with me,” Eren blurted out. “So I kind of... _implied_. I didn’t _say_  it was a date, she just assumed because of what I said.” He rubbed the back of his neck, wincing slightly and hating that Levi had found out about that. Then a thought occurred to him and he paled. “Shit, Jean doesn’t think we’re dating, does he?!”

Levi’s silence was answer enough and Eren cursed, realizing that was probably why his friend had been a little butthurt the last time they’d spoken. He thought Eren was hiding a relationship from him which he _was not_  because he and Levi weren’t dating!

Eren wanted to turn around and bang his head repeatedly against the counter, but that would mean turning his back on Levi, and he didn’t want to do that right now. So he just sighed and slouched in his seat, trying to figure out a way to explain all of this away to his sister and friends without telling them the truth. It didn’t help that Levi didn’t seem to have corrected Jean, so that was great.

Something for him to think about later. Right now, he didn’t have the brain capacity. Not with a fucking Werewolf sitting on his back counter waiting for him to stop being scared of him. How the hell was he supposed to stop being scared of him when Levi was scaring him by _sitting on the back counter_?!

“Just ask me something,” Levi insisted after a few additional minutes of silent staring.

“Like what?”

“Anything.” The older man straightened, uncrossing his arms and resting his palms on his thighs. “We’re alone, and I’ll hear if anyone is approaching. Just ask me whatever you want to know.”

Eren shifted uncomfortably, not really knowing what to ask. He had questions, of course he did. Hundreds, no, _thousands_  of them. But how was he supposed to voice them? All of them sounded stupid in his head, and while he knew they probably weren’t, they _felt_  stupid. He didn’t want to ask Levi a stupid question!

“Does it hurt?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

He expected Levi to get angry, or even look annoyed, or maybe just wince as if remembering the last change. Instead, he just answered in a completely normal and honest voice.

“Yeah, it does. I’m really only conscious of it for about two or three minutes, but all your brain is thinking is that your bones aren’t supposed to bend that way and that those muscles don’t belong where they’re being forced. It hurts. A lot.”

“Do you...” Eren winced. “Do you ever get used to it?”

Levi leaned back again, crossing one leg over the other and shrugging one shoulder, looking at the ceiling. “Yes and no. The pain never gets easier, but after the first few times you kind of learn how to focus on something else. I usually try and think about plotholes in my works, it keeps my brain distracted. Except this last change.” Levi’s gaze shifted back to Eren. “The first night I was just panicking about you. Second night, too. Third night was okay, I was with Erwin at his place, no humans around to hurt.”

“Right.” Eren rubbed awkwardly at his arm, fingers rubbing at the various scabs and healing bruises. “That sucks, I’m sorry.”

“It is what it is. Nothing that can be done about it, so no use complaining.” He scowled. “Hanji still does, though. All the time. It’s annoying.”

Eren nodded slowly, rubbing his hands together. “What about when you change back? I mean, I know I was asleep in the storage room, but when you turned back into a human, I’d have assumed you’d have been in pain again and screaming, but I don’t remember hearing anything. I’d have woken up.”

“The change back is usually easier. We spend more time in human form, so moving bones and muscles back to where they’re meant to be is less of a strain on the body. On top of that, the wolf’s still in charge, so they take the brunt of the pain. I’ve always been unconscious when I’ve shifted back on a full moon, and I don’t know a single person who hasn’t been.”

“Oh.” Eren didn’t know what else to say. Something to explore, he supposed. Not that _he_  would explore it, but it was just something _to_  explore. For other people.

Who weren’t terrified of Werewolves.

“So... Werewolves. Are you, like... born as one, or do people turn, or...?” He wasn’t entirely sure how to ask the question because he remembered Erwin and Levi mentioning multiple times that humans always died, so he could only assume they were born. But how did that work when a newborn baby just suddenly turned into a Werewolf at the full moon? That seemed impossible.

“A little of both.” Levi’s muscles had tensed a little at this comment, which made it very obvious that they were now moving into more dangerous territory. But, true to his word, he answered all the same. “It’s kind of complicated, when you really think about it. People aren’t always Werewolves, they’re just born with the Werewolf gene. It’s a genetic trait, passed down from parent to child, but it lies dormant for years, sometimes entire lifetimes. You can be a Werewolf and never know it because it never surfaced.”

“Really?” Eren asked, finding that to be extremely weird. The words made his skin crawl and he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he was one, as well, and didn’t know it. Maybe that was why Levi didn’t attack him. Then again, Erwin had, so that was unlikely.

“If you’re thinking you’re one, you’re probably not,” Levi said, shifting on the counter again, as if he were uncomfortable. “For one thing, you’d have turned the night in the truck if you were. Doesn’t get any more life or death than that. On top of that, while it’s not uncommon for people not to know, one member of the family would probably be a Werewolf. Unless one of your parents disappears three nights a month, then I doubt you have the gene. It’s unheard of that two generations in a row wouldn’t turn and, honestly, most wolves are smart enough to tell their kids it might happen. You don’t want to send a wolf out unprepared for the change.”

“Did your parents warn you?”

Levi’s eyes hardened at that and Eren felt like maybe that was a boundary he couldn’t overstep right now. “No, they didn’t.”

“Oh.” He nodded, licking his lips. “Um, so—how _does_  it surface?”

He could see Levi’s jaw working, but his face remained otherwise impassive, answering the question easily, as if it didn’t event affect him. “An event of extreme stress.”

“Stress?”

“Mm. The first time isn’t picky about the lunar cycle. Most Werewolves come into their ability under duress, or during life or death situations. It’s the body’s way of protecting itself from dying, a sort of jump-start, I guess. It’s different for everyone, for obvious reasons. Erwin turned when he lost control of his car and ended up in the river. He was drowning and something was wrong with his seatbelt so he couldn’t get out. He was going to die but the change kicked in then. Strength first, since that was what he needed. He managed to get out of the car, but once he was on land he began turning completely. He doesn’t really talk about what happened that first time, but I think it’s because he probably hurt someone and doesn’t like to think about it. None of us like to think about it.”

Eren saw Levi’s hands clench into fists and he looked down at his own hands, picking at one of the scabs on his fingers. He knew why Levi had started with Erwin. Whatever had happened to him during his change, it obviously wasn’t something he liked to remember.

“So... I guess Erwin knew right then what he was and, what, went to buy a cage?”

“It’s not that simple.” Levi shifted on the counter again and Eren sighed and stood up, motioning the chair. The older man stared at him.

“What? You obviously aren’t comfortable, so just take the chair. I like the counter.”

It looked like Levi was going to argue, but he eventually stood and shifted to sit in the chair, crossing his legs once more while Eren hopped up onto the counter, motioning for him to continue.

“It’s not that simple?” Eren prompted.

“No. Never is with us. Basically, Erwin remembered being in his car, drowning, and then he woke up on the riverbank with no clothes, and no memory of how he’d gotten there. He says it took him at least two months to put the pieces together because he kept losing time during the full moon. Eventually, as with all of us, another wolf tracked him down and helped him figure things out. You know, adapting and self-control and all that. Erwin’s the one who helped me when I turned.”

Eren nodded, waiting. Levi didn’t continue and as much as he didn’t want to ask, the curiosity was killing him.

“And—you? How did you turn?”

Levi’s gaze shifted away but when he spoke, he didn’t sound angry. Maybe a little hesitant, but not angry. “You know about my history, right? The horse seems obsessed, so I’m sure you’ve heard. About what happened when my first book was published?”

Eren remembered Jean standing on the other side of the counter, cheerfully recounting everything he’d read on the internet about Levi. Knowing what he knew now, and the fact that Levi had walked in soon after, he couldn’t help but wonder if Levi had overheard the conversation.

“You went camping with your friend.”

Levi nodded, still looking elsewhere, and Eren couldn’t help but wonder if he had killed him. It made his stomach twist uncomfortably, but not in fear. More in sadness. He felt bad for making Levi feel forced to relive this. He supposed maybe his history was the same as Eren’s night in the truck. Something he had to live with, and just managed to tolerate over time. Something always there, but no longer hindering his ability to move on.

“When I first got published with that stupid cannibal book, I was so excited. It was a weird and twisted topic, with dark humour and a gay protagonist. I never thought that society would ever be ready for something like that, so when it was in print and seemed to be doing really well, Farlan and I went to celebrate. We’ve both always liked camping, so we decided to go out to the woods near the outskirts of Trost.” He paused briefly, and Eren almost told him it was okay, but the next words out of his mouth made him feel guilty for having assumed.

“We were attacked. By—an animal. I don’t even remember what kind it was. The woods were dark, it was the middle of the night, and it tore through our tent. It got Farlan first, dragged him out by the ankle.” Levi’s hands clenched into fists but his expression didn’t change. “Before it could come back for me, the change kicked in. I don’t even remember it starting. One second I was sitting in the tent, horrified, listening to Farlan scream, and then the next it was morning and I was waking up two miles away from the campsite. I didn’t know what had happened, but I knew something was different because I was able to use my sense of smell to find my way back to camp.” His gaze shifted to Eren. “We figure the first thing that hits you with your change is the most prominent after your first time. For Erwin it was strength, for me is was scent. The wolf probably hunted the animal down and killed it.”

Eren tried to imagine how that would feel. Nineteen, out in the woods with Jean. Waking up in the middle of the night and finding him getting dragged out of the tent. It made him want to be sick.

“Levi—”

“I called the cops as soon as I got back to the site,” Levi said, cutting him off. “I told them what I remembered, and while nobody doubted that it had been an animal, everyone found it weird I was fine. I didn’t know what to tell them, I had no idea why I was fine. I just knew I was. It got in the papers, for obvious reasons. Rising author lone survivor of vicious animal attack.” Levi snorted, as if thinking they could’ve done better. “Erwin found me after that before my next change. For wolves, reading that is like a flashing sign. I thought he was crazy, who wouldn’t? But as the days passed before the change, little things started to make sense, and when it was finally the full moon, I decided it’d be best to listen to him. The silver allergy takes a few changes to kick in, but I didn’t need that to be convinced. Just the agonizing pain and a few hours of lost time. You start to believe when it happens three nights in a row.”

Levi paused here, as it finding that to be a good enough spot to finish. Eren was rubbing his hands along his thighs, licking at his lips.

“Levi, I’m-I’m sorry. What happened to your friend—I’m really sorry.”

“Yeah, me too,” he muttered, gaze still averted. He was looking at the door, and when Eren opened his mouth to ask another question, Levi interrupted him. “Someone’s coming.”

It took almost forty-five seconds for the door to open, which made Eren wonder how far Levi could hear. He didn’t ask though, he just waved to the teenagers who wandered in, joking and laughing without a care in the world, picking out chips and some pop, not even aware that there was a fucking Werewolf sitting behind the till.

Levi was the one who rang them through when they moved to the front. Eren had tried, but Levi refused to leave the seat and eventually the brunet just gave up and let him do as he pleased. Once they’d paid for everything, they waved goodbye to Eren and left the store.

“They were high,” Levi informed him.

“Yeah, don’t need a wolf’s sense of smell to know that,” he insisted with a laugh, hopping back up onto the counter and bringing his legs up so he had them crossed over each other, gripping his ankles. “So you said that wolves are born with the genes, but both you and Erwin were worried about me getting bitten or scratched, so I’m guessing that also turns people?”

“Yeah. Genetics tends to be the main way people become Werewolves though. Like I said, it can stay dormant for years, and people only ever become affected by it once they allow it to take control. Once you’re a wolf, there’s no turning back. It takes over and you don’t have a choice when the moon’s full. It’ll come every month whether you want it to or not, wether it’s _convenient_  or not. The second way, the infection through biting or scratching, is a lot rarer.”

“Rarer?” Eren asked, frowning in confusion. “How can that be rarer?”

He could tell Levi didn’t want to answer, the older man shifting uncomfortably, but he finally said, “Werewolves don’t usually leave their prey alive.”

“Oh.” Right. They’d mentioned that. Multiple times.

“Most of the time, if you’re stuck with a Werewolf, you’re not going to have the opportunity to turn. It’ll kill you long before the thought crosses your mind. The few people who _have_  come across a Werewolf and been infected, well...” Levi trailed off, scowling. He looked unhappy to be talking about this, but seemed to remember it was his idea and finally continued. “Not many people survive the transformation. Like I said, it hurts like a bitch and it’s not exactly easy on the body. People who aren’t born as wolves, most of their hearts give out or the pain is too extreme for their minds to handle. As far as we’ve recorded, this century alone there have been over seven hundred people infected, and only three of them have lived.”

Eren’s mind immediately flashed back to Levi’s friend, the one who’d been having coffee with Erwin back when Levi had first moved into town. They had large scars across their face, as if an animal had taken a swipe at it.  
“Your friend,” he said cautiously. “The scientist.”

“Hanji, yeah.” Levi finally looked at him again, his arms crossed and a sigh escaping him. “My fault. We were roommates in University, so we’re quite close. They came by unannounced during a full moon and got a little too close to my cage. They’re lucky that was the worst that happened, they could’ve lost an eye.” He twisted the chair slightly, as if trying to angle it more in Eren’s direction. “When I was conscious again, I saw the blood and I knew I’d hurt someone. I recognized Hanji’s scent so I called Erwin and we went to their house. They were mid-transformation when we got there. Your first time, the change just happens, but when you’re infected, it happens _quickly_. We’re lucky we got there before they were fully turned.”

He shifted in his seat again and it occurred to Eren that maybe Levi wasn’t uncomfortable with where he was sitting, but trying to stall because he didn’t like the topic of discussion.

“It was a stressful few hours, but eventually they made it to the end. I hate that it happened, but I’m glad they didn’t die. Even now, the change is the worst for them. When your body isn’t ever supposed to change that drastically, every turn is harder and I worry all the time that they’re not going to survive the next change.”

Eren wanted to say something to make him feel better, but he didn’t know what. He was by no means an expert on this, so anything he said would just be empty words. He didn’t want to give Levi empty words, he wanted to reassure him that everything was going to be okay.

“I’m really sorry,” he said instead. “I’m glad they survived though. That must’ve been a relief.”

“Yeah. Didn’t learn my lesson though.”

“What do you mean?” Eren frowned. Levi looked away from him again, and then a thought occurred to him. “Your fiancé. And your roommate.”

“Yeah.” Levi let out a short, mirthless laugh. “It happens. Isabelle didn’t know. She came home early, she was meant to be out of town. I got out of my cage and...” He scowled angrily, gaze still turned away. “Eld was different. He knew what I was, I warned him in advance. Erwin was pissed, but I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. I wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. But I—it was my fault. I pissed off a rogue in another pack. Woke up in my cage with Eld mauled right beyond the bars. The rogue obviously made sure they’d turn close to where I was so they could inflict the maximum amount of damage. A few other people in the building were killed, too, because of me.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Eren insisted. “You have no control over what other wolves do.”

“I’m a sarcastic asshole, I was kind of asking for it,” Levi said dryly.

“Still, you didn’t do anything. What other wolves do when they turn is outside of your control.”

Levi said nothing to that, but Eren could tell he wasn’t convinced, and that he still blamed himself. He didn’t want to upset him, and the topic had gotten dark enough, so he figured he should move it to safer waters and ask about things he’d been wondering about before this conversation.

“You and Erwin keep talking about packs. Is that how this works? You guys are a-a pack?”

“It’s a choice.” Levi looked back at him then. “If you want to live in a pack, you do. If you’d prefer to be alone, you’re welcome to do that, too. But there are rules for this kind of thing. We’re all meant to adhere to them, and anyone caught breaking a rule is subject to the consequences. It doesn’t happen often, most wolves prefer to go about their business, keep a low profile, but a rogue will pop up every now and then and get taken out pretty quick.”

“What’s a rogue?” Eren asked, despite knowing Levi was probably getting to that.

“They’re fucked up,” Levi informed him.

“Thanks for clarifying,” Eren insisted, rolling his eyes. He twirled one hand, motioning for Levi to elaborate, even though he was sure the other man was going to.

“Rogues are essentially wolves who were wrong in the head even before they turned. They hunt for sport, kill for the pleasure of it. Very few wolves are like that. Most of us try to blend in, be normal. Rogues only give the appearance of trying to blend in, but they always get caught. Most of them will join a pack to keep suspicion off them, but joining a pack doesn’t mean you aren’t suspect. The one that killed Eld was in a pack. It was tried and killed by the pack leader, but it doesn’t take back what he did.”

They were in dangerous waters again.

“So,” Eren said, trying to move them out once more, “you and Erwin, then. You’re in a pack?”

“A small one, but yeah. Erwin’s the pack leader, his word is law. Well, most of the time.”

“What do you mean?”

“I like to bend the law a lot.” Eren was relieved to see a small smile teasing the corners of Levi’s lips.

“Yeah, I noticed you like to push his buttons.”

“Erwin and I have known one another for a long time.” Levi crossed his arms. “Several years, now. He’s never steered me wrong, but he has a very linear view. I just try and help him steer off the path every now and then, but I’ll always follow him when the choice is made whether I agree with it or not.”

Eren wondered if that was kind of what his relationship with Jean looked like from the outside. He was just there, minding his own business, doing his own thing, and Jean would swoop in and ask him to break into someone’s house.

Levi seemed a lot more reasonable, but still, maybe it was the same.

“Any more questions?” Levi asked. Eren felt like he looked tired, and he wished Levi would go home and sleep. He knew that was never going to happen, so he figured he could cut the guy some slack. He’d just turned into a wolf recently.

“Why cannibalism?”

Levi blinked. “What?”

“Your first book. Why cannibalism? You could’ve gone with anything else, so why that?”

It seemed to take a few seconds for Levi’s mental gears to shift, but when they did, he almost smiled before answering, seeming more at ease now that they were moving into safer topics.

Maybe being friends with a Werewolf wasn’t as bad as he thought it was.

Provided he stayed far, _far_  away during the full moon.


	11. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Star Trek (c) Gene Roddenberry

The office door slammed open loudly, Eren’s stomping footsteps easily heard through the whole store while he made his way to the front.

Levi looked up from his laptop, watching the brunet storm towards him with disinterest. When Eren was right in front of him, he slammed both hands down on the counter on either side of Levi’s laptop, eyes flashing.

“Where’s the rest of it?” he demanded. He looked to be about five seconds away from climbing over the counter and shaking an answer out of Levi.

“In my head,” was the writer’s unconcerned response. “You were supposed to wait until your night shifts to read that, weren’t you in the office doing paperwork?”

Eren just stared at him, as if realizing he’d been caught, but any feelings of guilt passed quickly because he said, “I need the rest of it now.”

“Well, it’s not written yet, so you can’t have it.”

“Tell me, then.”

“No.”

“Tell me!”

“Stop being a brat,” Levi insisted, returning to his typing. He ignored the way Eren raced around the counter to read over his shoulder, mostly because at least he was being quiet.

Things had gotten better since their long chat about Werewolves two weeks prior, something furthered along by Levi allowing Eren to read the book he was still working on. A bribe, perhaps, but it was working well for him and at least now he and Eren could be classed as friends. They spent a lot of time together, both at work and outside of it.

Levi still came by during Eren’s night shifts, but he wasn’t a person whose friendship Eren felt compelled to hide, which Levi appreciated. Lately, whenever Eren and his friends went out to dinner or to a movie, Levi always got an invite. He didn’t always accept, but he appreciated it all the same because it meant Eren was getting more comfortable with him.

Which was both good _and_  bad, because the closer they got, the _closer_  Levi wanted to _get_. Something which was always made worse by Eren insisting to Jean that they were _not_  dating, and that it was all a huge misunderstanding.

He didn’t want it to be a misunderstanding, he wanted it to be real. Not that he’d said as much to Eren yet. He felt more time was needed. Eren was still a little too jumpy.

For the moment, he just contented himself with scent-marking him as much as possible so any other Werewolves in the vicinity knew to back off. Still hadn’t mentioned _that_  to Eren, either.

“Anyone in the store?” Eren asked from behind him. Levi heard him shift and then a thump, suggesting he was sitting on the back counter, like he tended to do nowadays when they were working together.

“No.”

“Did you get the cage fixed yet?”

He should’ve known an inquiry about whether or not the store was empty meant he wanted to talk about Levi’s problem. Not that it bothered him, he just tended to like to steer clear of it because he worried it made Eren uncomfortable.

“Yeah, on Tuesday. Erwin, Gunther and Mike came up to help me bolt it in properly and we replaced the lock. It’s not made out of silver, but wolves don’t have hands so it’s irrelevant.”

“Erwin was here?” He heard the tightness in Eren’s voice and turned, seeing him trying for nonchalant, but looking more green around the edges.

“He thought it’d be better if you didn’t know he was around. You’re pretty jumpy with him.”

“No I’m not,” Eren insisted, scowling and crossing his arms. “Besides—”

Eren cut himself off when his phone rang and he held up one finger in a ‘hold that thought’ motion before digging it out of his pocket. He checked the caller ID, winced, and then answered.

“Hey Annie.”

Levi watched Eren for a second and then turned back to the computer, beginning to type once more. He hadn’t heard good things about Eren’s blonde friend, but they were mostly second-hand from listening in on conversations between Mikasa and Armin. Jean occasionally had some things to say about her, but he spent most of his free time _with_  Eren and he wasn’t going to bash Eren’s friend in front of him.

Probably one of the only good qualities the horse had.

It was incredibly difficult to resist listening in on the conversation, so Levi didn’t bother trying. He just eavesdropped openly, moving his fingers across the keyboard without really paying any attention to what he was writing.

_“So you’re not dead, that’s good I guess.”_

“What? Of course I’m not dead! Why would I be dead?”

_“Are your fingers broken, then? Can’t remember how to dial a phone? Don’t know how to spell to send me a text?”_

Eren sighed loudly, an action Levi thought was a bad call. And he was right.

_“Why the fuck are you sighing like I’m an inconvenience to you?”_

“Annie, I told you, things have been crazy at work with Thomas quitting, and my dad’s issue with Reiner... I’ve been busy.”

_“I saw you at the movies with your sister on Saturday.”_

“I had a day off, and wanted to see the new _Star Trek_ movie. Jean, Armin and Levi were there, too. I’d have invited you but you don—”

_“Who the hell is Levi?”_

“Levi. You know, the guy who works at the store?”

Levi’s fingers paused at those words. For some reason, hearing him described as “the guy who works at the store” was a little... he didn’t know. Not what he’d expected. A friend maybe? Though really, he knew Eren was trying to describe who he was to someone who didn’t know him, but it still kind of irked him to be referred to as simply “the guy who works at the store.”

_“You’ve been spending a lot of time with him. I heard you were dating him. Isn’t he a grandpa?”_

Levi turned sharply at that and had the misfortune of meeting Eren’s eye. Meaning he’d just given away that he was eavesdropping.

But the way Eren’s face went beet red was almost worth it, the brunet turning around completely on the counter and pressing his forehead and free hand against the window.

“What?” He laughed nervously. “He’s only thirty.”

“Twenty-eight!”

“He’s only twenty-eight,” Eren corrected immediately, glancing nervously over his shoulder. “And we’re not dating, he’s just a friend. You know, we get on.”

There was silence for a few seconds.

_“Is he with you right now?”_

“Well—yeah. I’m at work. He’s also at work. It’s-it’s working hours?”

_“Unbelievable. Why don’t you just fucking spend every waking moment of your life with everyone **but** me then? Why not? Seems you’re heading there already!”_

“Come on, Annie, don’t be like that! An-Annie! And she hung up.” Eren sighed and pulled the phone away from his ear, rubbing the back of his head before twisting back around and plopping down properly, putting his phone away.

“Why are you even friends with her?” Levi asked, scowling and still smarting from being called a grandpa _and_ thirty.

“We grew up together.” Eren shrugged. “I don’t know, we have a lot in common. It’s hard sometimes because we live far apart and our schedules don’t match but,” he rested his hands against the counter between his knees and swung his legs back and forth slightly, “I don’t know.”

“She seems possessive,” Levi snapped, turning his back on Eren and beginning to type again.

“Are you jealous?” He heard Eren leap off the back, the brunet moving to lean against the counter beside Levi, grinning. “You are jealous! Why?”

Levi gave him a look that promised certain death if he _dared_  utter he was jealous again. Eren laughed and shook his head, pushing away from the counter and moving back around it to head for the office.

“Don’t worry, Levi. You’re my friend, too!”

“Wish I was more than that,” he muttered irately.

“What?”

“I said you’re annoying.”

Levi was glad Eren didn’t have super-hearing.

* * *

Eren was attempting to reach items on the top shelf. He was attempting to do this without actually using the step-stool because that made way too much sense and why would he want to be smart about this? So Eren did not use the stool, and instead attempted to reach items on the top shelf by sheer willpower.

When he put one foot on the bottom shelf to get a bit more height, Levi wandered into the small storage room.

“You’re gonna fall.”

“I’m not gonna fall,” Eren snapped. “And don’t let the door slam! The last thing I want is to be locked in here again.”

“It’s not the full moon.”

“I don’t care.” Eren turned his head to give Levi an annoyed look. “Whether you turn into a wolf or not has no effect on my desires to be locked in this room, with or without you.”

“You’re gonna fall,” Levi repeatedly easily.

“I am _not_  gonna fall!” Eren insisted, annoyed. He shifted his other foot up off the ground and moved it to the next available shelf. Once he got his footing, he redistributed his weight—and promptly fell when his foot slipped.

Levi had been expecting it, because his arms were out and he caught Eren under the armpits before the brunet could crash to the ground. The two of them stayed like that for a few long seconds, most of Eren’s weight being supported by Levi, which was fine, since he was a Werewolf and could bench-press Eren if he wanted to.

“I fell.”

“No kidding.”

Eren struggled to get his feet back under him and stood, straightening out his shirt and muttering, “Thanks.”

Levi said nothing and Eren returned to the shelf, moving to grab the step-stool this time. He was just about to climb onto it when Levi grabbed his shoulder and wrenched him around, slamming him back against the shelving unit hard.

“Ow! Levi! What the fu—”

He kissed him. Hard. Urgent. Desperate.

It was like he was kissing him for the last time, while it also being the first time. He was so rough it was almost painful and Eren ended up shoving at his chest hard to try and get him to back off even a little bit, gasping in air. The separation didn’t deter Levi, he just bent his head slightly and began biting and sucking at Eren’s neck.

A groan escaped the brunet, his breathing laboured. Then a hiss of pain.

“Ow. Lev—ow! Ow, that hurts! Levi, that hurts!”

Shoving at Levi hard, the older man was forced back a step, only he wasn’t a man. He was a wolf.

And he had taken skin and muscle away with him, muzzle dripping blood, eyes hungry for more and—

Limbs flailed violently, a sweat-soaked body jerking up in bed. Laboured breathing filled the dark room, the breeze coming in through the partially open window doing nothing to cool the heat rising off the shaking figure.

Hands fisted the sheets, head bowing and heart pounding. Shoulders rose and fell rapidly with his breathing and he shut his eyes, trying to calm himself down.

A dream.

It was just a dream.

“Nightmare?”

A positively inhuman howl escaped Eren, the brunet leaping sideways off his bed away from the source of the noise and tripping over some clothes, almost putting his head through the window. He managed to catch himself on the ledge, whipping around while still not fully on his feet.

Levi was sitting in his desk chair, Eren’s laptop open and lit up behind him. The Werewolf said nothing else, shifting his legs so he could stand. The chair creaked at the movement and Eren watched Levi move over to the closet, pull open the door, step inside, and then shut it.

Half a second later, Eren’s door flew open and his light switched on.

“Eren? What is it? What happened?!”

His father looked urgently around the room, glasses askew and a patch of drool on his face. His mother was lingering in the doorway behind him, pulling a bathrobe closed tightly around her slender form. He didn’t see Mikasa, but he was sure she was there.

“Eren? Are you okay?” Grisha asked again when it was clear there was no danger and his son still hadn’t answered.

“Yeah.” His heart was still pounding somewhere up in his throat. He struggled to swallow it back down to where it belonged. “Yeah, I-I’m fine. Just—sorry. I had a bad dream.”

He felt embarrassed admitting it out loud, but no one seemed to judge him for it. His father just relaxed and wandered forward, moving to the window and looking outside, as if worried Eren was covering for someone who had broken in. When he found nothing, he patted his son’s shoulder, told him to get some sleep, and then headed back for the door, turning the light back off.

“Is he okay?” he heard Mikasa ask when his parents shut the door behind them. He didn’t hear the answer, but assumed everyone had gone back to their rooms because Levi opened the closet doors and stepped out, wandering leisurely back to the desk and falling into the chair once more.

“What are you doing in here?” Eren hissed, worried his family may hear him. “How did you even get _in_  here?!”

“I walked in,” Levi said in his normal voice, clearly confident nobody would be hearing them. “Through the wide open door you left behind you when you wandered down your driveway.”

“What are you talking about, I didn’t wan—” Eren cut himself off, staring at Levi while the other watched him. Then he looked down at his feet, lifting his left foot. The bottom of the bandage he still wore was covered in dirt, but had been brand new and pristine when he’d gone to bed, courtesy of his father. He looked back up at Levi. “I was sleepwalking again.”

“You’re getting more talkative when I stop you,” Levi informed him, using one foot to spin the chair around so he was facing the computer once more and beginning to type.

“Is that—is that my laptop?” Eren demanded, moving quickly across his room.

“Yes.”

“Hey!” Eren insisted as quietly as he could manage, but still ensuring the right tone came across. “You can’t just use my stuff! How did you even get past my password?”

Levi’s typing stopped for a fraction of a second while he tapped at a piece of paper on the corner of his desk, then returned to his typing. Eren glanced at what he’d motioned and felt his cheeks burning. He’d forgotten he’d written out a list of all his passwords. He had too many, he kept forgetting them!

“Don’t go through people’s things!” Eren insisted, snatching up the sheet of paper and turning to stuff it into a random book on his shelf. “How did you even find it?”

“I hang out in your room a lot.”

“When?!”

“When you’re sleeping.”

Eren just stared at the back of Levi’s head. Did he not realize how stalkerish and creepy that sounded, or did he just not care? Knowing Levi, it was probably the latter. Well, it wasn’t like Levi was looking to hurt him, considering, so Eren just sighed and moved back to his desk.

Turning and sitting down on the end of it, he watched the light bounce off Levi’s face while the other typed, eyes shifting back and forth across his screen.

“What’re you doing, anyway?”

“Research.”

“You know, Jean’s the research king.” Eren crossed his arms. “If you need something looked up, he’s your guy.”

“Not in this case.”

“Why, what’s the research on?”

“Us.” He stopped typing then and turned the laptop so that Eren could see. He had more tabs open than were visible in Google Chrome, but the one he was on right then was showing the history of the area, before the town even became Shiganshina.

“I—didn’t know they had so much stuff online from that long ago,” he said, a little surprised.

“Erwin’s good at finding things, too.” Levi turned the laptop back to himself and began flipping through the tabs. “He’s been helping me.”

Eren shifted. “Is this about the whole you protecting me thing?”

“Mm.” Levi was scowling at the tab he’d stopped on, moving the mouse up to the link and then switching windows. Eren saw it was open on a Hotmail account and realized Levi was emailing himself useful links.

It made him feel a little guilty that Levi and Erwin were looking into this so much while he just sat there without a care in the world, not even trying to help. He hadn’t even looked into Mikasa and Levi’s background in over a month, and now he felt _really_  shitty.

Then again... he and Levi were friends now, so maybe...

“Hey Levi?”

“What?”

“This might sound... weird. And a little nuts. But um...” Eren rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, avoiding Levi’s gaze when the other turned to look at him. “You’re not... I mean, you and Mikasa... are you...?”

“Spit it out.”

“You’re not related to Mikasa, are you?”

He kept his gaze shifted anywhere but in Levi’s direction, not wanting to look at the disbelief and possible humour on his face. When the silence stretched on, he chanced a glance and saw Levi staring blankly at the screen in front of him, fingers poised, as if he were about to write.

“Levi?”

“I don’t know my parents,” he said quietly. “My mother—when I was eleven, my mother was incarcerated for murder. Apparently she kidnapped and murdered some people, but she was caught and put away. She died of cancer soon afterwards, so I don’t really remember her much. I never met my dad, asshole ran off long before I was capable of conscious thought.”

It suddenly occurred to Eren why Levi had mentioned all those weeks ago that his parents hadn’t warned him about the change. He’d grown up without them, which meant he’d grown up without any guidance. If Erwin hadn’t found him, things probably would’ve turned out very differently for him.

“Sorry,” Eren whispered, not sure what else to say. “So—is Levi Ackerman your real name?”

“Yeah, that much I know,” Levi leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms, looking over at Eren. “I was put into foster care. Apparently my records didn’t show a next of kin, so I bounced around from home to home until I was sixteen. I became an emancipated minor by that point and figured my own shit out from there.”

It was a little humiliating to realize that Levi had his life together enough to afford a place and school, as well as starting up a writing career, when he was only sixteen. Eren was twenty-two, and he still lived with his parents. It made him feel a little pathetic.

Levi was still watching him and Eren looked away, rubbing the back of his neck and feeling uncomfortable. He complained about his parents all the time, never really taking into account the fact that Levi might not have any. Now he felt like a dick.

“Don’t look so pathetic, I don’t care. Erwin’s offered to look into my family loads of times.”

“Why didn’t he?”

“Told him not to bother. If no one ever reached out to me, they obviously didn’t give a shit. No point making friendly with people like that.”

“Oh.” It was hard talking to Levi sometimes. He took so many things in stride that Eren didn’t think he could manage. Even though it had been obvious talking about his deceased friends and fiancé had been hard on him, he’d bounced back from it really quickly. Eren felt like he’d still be a mess if Jean or Armin had been murdered right in front of him.

Hell, he was a mess from being stuck in a truck for one night, and that didn’t seem _nearly_  as traumatizing as Levi’s experiences.

“What was it about, anyway?”

“Huh?” Eren asked, forcing himself to focus once more.

“The nightmare. What was it about?”

Eren’s brain flashed back to what he’d been dreaming about and he felt his stomach twist uncomfortably. He turned away from Levi, muttering, “Nothing,” and rubbed at the wood of his desk with his index finger.

He hadn’t realized that, somewhere along the line, he’d formed a sort of physical attraction to Levi. He’d always kind of thought he was good looking, but he’d never actually realized he thought he was _that_  good looking. He could only assume their friendship was making him more interested.

And then there was how the dream had ended.

It made his skin crawl and his throat itch, as if Levi really _had_  torn into the flesh of his neck and—

A hand gently touched his wrist. “Eren?”

He looked back at Levi, cleared his throat and stood, forcing the other’s fingers to slide off his skin. “I should get some sleep. I have work tomorrow. You should probably sleep, too.”

“I can’t sleep,” Levi twisted his chair around so that he was watching Eren walk back to his bed, the brunet climbing beneath the covers. “Every time I leave, I worry you’re going to wander out of your house.”

Eren scowled, wondering if that was why Levi spent so much time in his room. Did he sleepwalk a lot? Was Levi always bringing him back up to his room and leaving before Eren woke up? What if this didn’t stop? What if it just got worse?

“Maybe I should... maybe I should tell someone. My parents, or something.”

“Not yet,” Levi said, surprising him.

“Not yet?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I hate that you keep doing it, but every time you do I feel like I’m getting more and more answers out of you.”

“What if you didn’t stop me one day and just let me walk?”

The look on Levi’s face made it seem as if Eren had just asked him to murder a puppy. His hands curled into fists, his jaw clenched, his eyes widened and it looked like his back had snapped straight from his slouched position.

“Bad idea?”

“Very bad idea,” Levi confirmed. “I get a bad feeling every time it happens. Letting you go...what if I lose you? Or something happens and you disappear on me? What if I get jumped while with you and you just keep walking?”

“Okay, I get it, bad idea,” Eren insisted, holding up both hands in surrender. “But you can’t watch me _all_  the time, you know that, right? Besides, I still don’t get why you’re being so protective, I’m totally fine.”

“Something malicious is hunting you,” Levi insisted. “I can’t figure out what it is, but it’s after you, and it’s closing in more and more.”

A short laugh escaped Eren at those words. “A malicious something is after me?” He scoffed. “Please. Like what?”

Levi stared at him. “I’m a Werewolf. You really want me to answer that question?”

A pause.

“No. No I do not.”

“Didn’t think so.” Levi turned back to the laptop and began typing once more. “Get some sleep, Eren. I’ll keep you in your bed until morning.”

Eren wished he hadn’t said that and was _really_  glad his back was turned so that he didn’t see the way blood slowly crept up into his face. He fell onto his back, turning away from Levi and pulled his blankets over his head.

He really hoped he didn’t have any more dreams tonight.

* * *

“Do you ever work?”

Jean glanced up at Hannes when the man wandered over to his table, a coffee pot in one hand and a rag in the other. He watched him refill his empty mug, nodding in thanks, but didn’t answer his question because he didn’t deem it worthy of a response.

“What’s the topic of the day?” Hannes asked, leaning over his shoulder as he often did when Jean was there. “Car accidents?”

“More looking into what injuries look like after someone’s been in one. You know, internal bleeding and all that.”

“Is this because of Eren?” Hannes asked.

Jean hesitated, not wanting to answer any questions like that directly, but he figured there was no point in lying about it. Eren had recently been in an accident, and been injured, and now Jean was looking up accidents and their related injuries. It didn’t take a rocket scientist.

“Yeah, mostly. He keeps getting into accidents, and I just wanna make sure that he’s gonna be okay.”

“You’re a good friend, Jean.” Hannes patted the younger man’s shoulder. “A weird one, but a good one.”

Saying nothing in response to that, he just returned to what he was doing, taking a sip of his coffee, eyes scanning over the article he’d been reading. He switched tabs and began reading through another article, then another, and another.

Eventually, he gave up and went to look on Reddit. When in doubt, use Reddit. That was kind of the way his brain worked because there were always a lot of people on there who legitimately tried to help. A few of them were complete morons, but most of them were actually pretty good.

Opening up the thread he’d started, complete with sneaky pictures he’d taken of Eren without him noticing, he read through some of the comments in an almost bored fashion. He’d blurred out Eren’s face, but he had nice skin and muscled arms so a lot of assholes were asking for nudes or pictures of his face. When he got to the first few that were actually about accidents, they weren’t particularly helpful.

It wasn’t until he got near the bottom that he straightened, reading over what had been said. The person didn’t identify themselves in any formal profession, but they instead mentioned that the injuries Eren had seemed consistent with injuries one of their friends had received. Jean had recounted Eren’s story about being T-boned in the body of the text, and the poster insisted that it really didn’t seem to be the case.

They explained a little about their friend, who had gotten chased off the road and had their car roll down a hill. They’d been wearing their seatbelt, so they thankfully hadn’t been injured too terribly, but the injuries Eren had seemed fairly consistent with their friend’s, including bruising and multiple cuts from broken glass.

Jean tapped his fingers against his laptop for a few seconds, thinking about this, then opened a new tab and began typing up references to people surviving accidents where cars went tumbling down hills. It was harder to find pictures of this, but he managed after digging around for a few hours, occasionally returning to Reddit to see people adding to the one person’s post, confirming that it looked more like a serious accident as opposed to someone who’d gotten T-boned.

In a way, it seemed to make sense. Eren’s truck had disappeared before anyone had gotten the chance to see it, but it didn’t normally take this long for panelling to be replaced. He was certain the frame of the vehicle had been damaged, which would add on a few extra days, but overall it shouldn’t have been taking this long for him to get his truck back.

Unless the destruction was more severe than Eren was admitting to. It was possible that Eren had sent his truck tumbling down a hill, and would match up with Jean’s own investigating the day of the accident, but why would he lie about it? Besides, there was only one hill even remotely steep enough in the area to have allowed such an accident, and that was Rose street. If Eren had gone tumbling down that hill from Levi’s house, Jean would’ve found evidence of that when he was looking around.

But he hadn’t. So what had happened to Eren’s truck?

What had happened to _Eren_  for him to get those injuries, and why was he lying about it?

* * *

Eren didn’t know when it had started, but he was sure it was more gradual than just waking up and having it magically be happening. As it stood though, he didn’t know when it had begun, and he also didn’t know if there was any way to stop it.

The more time passed, the more Eren realized he was staring at Levi. He wasn’t even conscious that he was doing it until one day when he was watching Levi bag someone’s groceries for them while he was sitting on the back counter and he realized that Levi’s shoulder blades looked tighter than usual.

It was a completely ridiculous thing to notice, which was why it startled him and made him realize that he had been staring at Levi a little too often lately. He knew why, but it still didn’t make things any less weird, especially whenever he had uncomfortable dreams about him.

Something made doubly awkward when he woke up and found Levi in his room. He still got completely freaked out when he did, but he’d learned to stop screaming so no one would come running in. He figured Levi wasn’t doing anything other than research on his laptop, so he let him be. He didn’t like it, but he tolerated it.

He’d tried to get him to leave once. That hadn’t gone over well. It was a lot easier to just ignore his presence, difficult as that was now becoming.

_He’s attractive, I guess,_ Eren thought to himself, watching Levi count out change and close the till, bidding the customer good night. Eren knew he was just adding the “I guess” in an attempt to make himself feel better. In truth, he’d thought Levi was attractive long before now, but it had been easier to ignore the attraction because he had once hated him. Now that they were friends, and Levi was some kind of weird protector, they were spending a lot of time together.

Levi was nice. He was funny. He could be a dick sometimes, and his sense of humour was really dark, but he was still a decent human being underneath the sour moods and tense silence. Somewhere along the line, Levi had moved out of the “he’s attractive” stage and into the “I would totally fuck him” stage.

Something Eren didn’t like admitting to himself, so he did his best trying to ignore it.

“Hey.”

“What?” Eren asked, forcing his brain back to attention. Levi was staring at him and for some reason, it made heat begin to rise up the back of his neck and Eren had to fight his own body to get it back down. There was no reason for embarrassment right now! Why was he embarrassed?!

“You’re not working tomorrow night, right?”

“Nope.” Eren crossed his arms, leaning back against the window. He knew he should be doing managerial things, but he didn’t feel like it and he wanted to hang out with Levi. A huge change from when the other man had first started.

“Dad’s hired one of the Reiss girls to be a new manager to take some of the pressure off me. He likes to train the managers so that everything is done the way _he_  wants it done, so he’s taking the next few night shifts with her to get her up to his standards. Why?”

“I need you to do me a favo—”

“Okay.”

Levi was giving him a weird look and it took Eren almost five full seconds to realize it was because he’d cut him off before he’d even finished his sentence.

When the heat rose this time, he didn’t manage to throttle it and instead just turned his face away, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I mean, yeah maybe, if it’s reasonable. I guess.”

Levi turned the chair fully to face him, staring him straight in the eye as if for maximum effect. Eren was glad he was mostly used to looking him in the eye now. He only felt the need to wet his pants when Levi made him feel that way on purpose, which he tended not to anymore.

“I need you to sleep with someone tomorrow night.”

The words took a few seconds to register, but once they did, Eren felt his eyebrows slowly rising in surprise. Levi wanted him to what?

“Uh... what?” he asked slowly, wondering if he’d misheard.

“Tomorrow,” Levi said. “I need you to sleep with someone.”

_Nope, definitely didn’t mishear him._  Eren didn’t know what to say, opening his mouth, closing it, letting out a slow, frustrated breath. Why was Levi asking him to fuck someone tomorrow? That seemed like a pretty weird favour to ask of him.

Apparently Levi agreed, because after a few seconds of silence, he suddenly sat up straighter and his eyes widened ever so slightly. “No, I mean, I need you to be sleeping in the same room as someone else,” he clarified. “I need you to be in the same room as someone else because tomorrow is the first day of the full moon so I’m not going to be there and I don’t want you sleepwalking again. So you need to sleep with someone who’s going to wake up if you start wandering out of the room.”

Eren felt like a complete idiot. Of _course_  Levi wasn’t telling him to go fuck someone, what the hell had he been thinking?! Why was he so fucking stupid?!

He struggled to stay on topic so that his embarrassment wouldn’t take over again and licked his lips. “Oh. Right. Of course. Uh, I mean, is that really necessary? I’m sure it’ll be fine for three days, it’s not like I do it _that_  often.”

Leaning back against the window, Eren crossed his arms again and frowned at the look Levi was giving him. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

“I-I don’t do it that often, right? Like, once a week, maybe?”

Levi said nothing and the uncomfortable feeling rose exponentially.

“Oh.” Great, now Eren was going to be afraid to sleep. “Okay, well that’s great,” he muttered, shaking his head and uncrossing his arms so he could rub at his face. He didn’t want to spend the night in Mikasa’s room, she’d been worrying about him more than usual lately because of his recurring nightmares. If he went to Jean’s, his friend would probably laugh at him. Maybe he could bunk with Armin for a few nights. They hadn’t spent much time together the past few months since Eren had taken over more shifts at the store. It would be a chance for them to catch up.

“I’ll see if I can stay with Armin,” he said with a sigh. “Not really ideal, but I’ll see if I can. If not, I guess I’ll talk to Jean.”

“Not really ideal?” Levi asked. It looked like the corners of his lips were tilting upwards.

“Well, yeah. I like my bed.”

“But I’m always there.”

“Yeah, do you sleep?” Eren asked, frowning at him. “You’re seriously always awake, do wolves not sleep or something?”

“Insomniac.” Levi stood with a stretch, then scratched at his arm before moving a step closer to Eren and reaching out to touch his wrist lightly. Eren had gotten used to Levi’s weird touchy-feely personality since they’d become friends, so he didn’t comment on it and let him run his fingers against his skin before Levi pulled his hand away and moved out from behind the counter. “I need to piss.”

Eren watched him walk away, admiring his ass through the jeans he was wearing and then immediately looked away when he realized what he was doing.

Things were weird enough for him right now without being weird around Levi. They’d just gotten back to a semblance of normal after him finding out he was a Werewolf, he really didn’t want things to get complicated. Despite the whole touching thing, he didn’t know how Levi felt about him, exactly, but Eren himself was trying very hard to bury the feelings.

It was weird. Levi was older than him. And still a virtual stranger to him. And a fucking Werewolf. It was weird. He had to stop.

Groaning, Eren buried his face in his hands when his brain immediately supplied him with an image from one of his recent dreams. They tended to always end badly, with Levi changing halfway through and trying to kill him, but the beginnings were always particularly pleasant.

Dragging his hands down his face with a sigh, he dropped them back into his lap, staring down at them, and frowned. Jumping off the counter, he rooted under the till for a wetwipe and then straightened, using it to rub at the inside of his left wrist where a dark smudge was forming. He’d have assumed it was one of his many, many bruises if not for the fact that most of them had healed to a yellowish colour, and he distinctly remembered where they all were.

Pulling the wetwipe away, he frowned when he saw the smudge still there. Shrugging, assuming it was ink, he just tossed the wetwipe into the trash and jumped back up onto the counter, swinging his feet and letting his mind wander back to where it had been before remembering that was dangerous waters.

His head whipped around when he heard the door to the store open, eager for a distraction, but the greeting died in his throat when he saw Annie step behind the till and stop in front of him. He hadn’t even gotten a word out when he felt a stinging pain in his right cheek.

It took his brain a few seconds to figure out she’d just slapped him.

“Ow,” he said loudly and emphatically. “Annie, wha—”

“What is going on with you?” she demanded, face impassive but eyes blazing. “What exactly happened in the recent weeks to make you start acting like this?”

“Like what?” Eren asked helplessly. “Annie, I’ve been _working_! I’m not—”

“What day was yesterday?”

The rest of Eren’s argument promptly sputtered out in his brain and he slowly tried to figure out what day it was.

When he finally clued in, his face paled. No, that wasn’t right. It couldn’t have been... He had time, didn’t he? That wasn’t right.

The fury in her eyes made it explicitly clear that, no, it was right, and he was wrong.

“Annie, I—”

“What is happening with you right now?” she asked, anger sliding into her tone. “You’ve been avoiding and ignoring me for a while now, and you keep _claiming_  to be busy but I still see you out and about with people! You’ve been acting like this ever since that new guy showed up. What, is he better than me?”

“What? No!” Eren insisted, a feeling of desperation beginning to rise. “Annie, come on, that’s not—”

“Well why the fuck are you always with _him_ , then?! Who even _is_  he?! Why did he move here? Nobody moves here!” She was shouting at him now. Annie didn’t often shout, but when she did, Eren knew he was in trouble. “Why are you ditching _me_  for _him_?!”

“I’m not ditching you!” Eren jumped off the counter, holding his hands out in supplication, trying to calm her down before someone else walked in or Levi came back. “Annie, I’ve legitimately been busy! And I’m sorry about yesterday. I am so, _so_  sorry, that was–that was _completely_  my fault and unacceptable and I will make it up to you, I promise.”

“Like you promised to make it up to me after you ditched me for that _bitch_?”

Eren knew she was referring to Mikasa. Normally he would snap at her for the comment, but she was so angry with him that he didn’t dare. He’d set her straight on that front once he was back on steadier ground with her.

“Annie, you don’t understand, that—”

The pain this time was more jarring and Eren stumbled a step, his cheekbone on fire and pain arcing through his face. If she was starting to _punch_  him now, then he’d _really_  fucked up.

Turning to apologize to her again, he felt his entire body turn to ice when he found Levi standing behind the counter, one hand gripping Annie’s wrist tightly.

He was staring right at her and Eren could see terror slowly beginning to build in Annie’s blue eyes. Levi’s grip seemed to be tightening around her wrist and Eren was incredibly worried that he was about to break it for hitting him.

Whatever protective instincts the wolf had over him, this was not helping his situation very much.

“Levi!” He moved quickly into Levi’s line of sight, half-blocking Annie. The older man didn’t look away from Annie, freezing her in place. “Levi, look at me. It’s fine, it’s okay. Annie and I are like this when we fight. It’s okay, let her go.” He grabbed at Levi’s wrist. His skin felt hot beneath his fingers, probably because the full moon was the next day. “Levi, let her go, you’re gonna break her wrist!”

Those words seemed to have some effect on him because Levi’s intense gaze shot to Eren and the brunet felt himself ready to vomit. But the moment passed quickly, Levi seeming to regain control of himself and he released Annie. She didn’t say a word, she just shoved past Eren forcefully and moved out from behind the counter. She slammed out the front door, causing it to hit the opposite wall but not shatter like Levi had done months before.

Eren watched her storm across the lot to her car but had to turn back to the other man when he felt knuckles brushing lightly against his cheekbone.

“I’m fine,” he muttered, grabbing at Levi’s hand and pulling it away from his face. A useless action since the other hand came up to press against the side of his neck. “It’s nothing. We’re like that all the time.”

“Sorry,” Levi muttered. “I didn’t mean to lose it. My protectiveness is just in overdrive right now.”

“Because of the change?”

“Yeah. I’m already relatively protective of you in general, but the wolf is ten times moreso. Being so close to the change puts him more in control and—sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Eren reached up to rub at his injured cheek. Levi’s hand remained where it was for a few seconds longer, thumb brushing lightly against the side of his jaw. When Eren let out a sigh and looked out the window again, Levi’s hand slid slowly off his neck. He suddenly missed the warmth of it but said nothing.

He noticed Annie had left now, and he groaned, falling into the chair and covering his face with both hands.

He didn’t know how he was going to fix this with her. Yesterday was an important day to her. It was a day she needed support and friendship.

It was the day her mother had died.

He hadn’t ever forgotten it even once in all the years they’d known one another. Her father usually busied himself elsewhere so he didn’t have to think about it, but that meant Annie was by herself. Usually only Eren, Reiner and Bertholdt remembered how hard it was for her and went to spend the day with her.

Eren could only imagine how she felt yesterday. She had probably been waiting for him to show up. She’d likely been with Reiner and Bertholdt the whole day, but she’d probably been waiting and waiting for Eren to show up.

“Fuck,” he hissed, tugging on his bangs with one hand.

Why hadn’t either of his friends texted him to remind him? Or even to ask where he was? Annie wouldn’t do it, that wasn’t really her style. But Reiner should’ve said something to him!

Realization dawned on him a moment later.

Reiner didn’t have Eren’s new number. He’d probably called the landline at home, but everyone had been at work yesterday, and Eren knew that his parents had gone out for dinner later in the evening and Mikasa was with Armin.

Eren had been with Levi.

She was never going to forgive him for this.

“Are you okay?”

He didn’t know how to answer so he didn’t. Eren just let out a slow sigh and then straightened, rubbing at his face once more and offering Levi a tight-lipped smile.

“It’s... a mess I created. I have to dig myself out of it. Somehow.”

“I can’t say I’m upset about this,” Levi admitted, turning to glare out the window, as if Annie were still there. “I don’t like her.”

“Yeah well, nobody I’m friends with seems to,” Eren groused, getting to his feet. “I’ve got paperwork to get done before Dad shows up. I’ll be in the office.”

“You should put some ice on that.”

“Actually, I think I deserve another punch to the face,” Eren muttered to himself, only remembering that Levi could hear him once he was safely sequestered in the office.

* * *

It wasn’t helping. No matter what song Eren changed his Ipod to, it wasn’t helping. Every song was louder than the last, and more violent sounding, but no matter how often he changed it and tried to force his brain to shut off, it didn’t.

He just lay there on his bed, staring at his ceiling with music blasting in his ears and his brain going a mile a minute. His hands would twitch on occasion and he would feel his heart rate increase every now and then before forcing himself to calm back down. It was hard. It was impossible.

His eyes shot to the time, noting it was almost nine thirty. Levi would’ve turned by now. He would be down in his basement, hopefully just sleeping or hanging out or—

Eren’s body jerked when his brain supplied him with an image of Erwin trying to crawl into the truck and he clenched his eyes shut. That only helped give the memory more form so he forced them open again, fisting the sheets on either side of his body and struggling to stay calm.

Erwin wasn’t here. He’d confirmed that with Levi earlier that day. Erwin was at home, in his own cage, far away from Eren. He wasn’t going to show up. He wasn’t going to be able to try and kill him. The only wolf here was Levi, and he was in a cage.

_A cage you already know can be broken out of,_ he told himself.

And it was true. He knew that Levi could break out if he really, truly wanted to. That scared him. Even though he was fairly certain Levi’s wolf side wasn’t interested in hurting him, it didn’t stop the fear from manifesting when his brain thought back on that night in the truck.

Fuck, it had been a month ago and he _still_  wasn’t over it. He supposed it made sense, but still.

Glancing at his phone, he hesitated before reaching out for it and pulling it closer, turning onto his side and using his thumbprint to unlock the screen.

A sigh escaped him when he saw no new messages, opening the last text he’d sent to Annie. He didn’t know what to do. He’d been trying—in vain, it seemed—to apologize to her but she wouldn’t even respond to him. He’d even called her father to ask if he could come by and he’d said it would be best for him not to.

He began to toss the phone back on his nightstand when he remembered Levi’s request. For him to sleep with someone. Pulling his headphones off, he moved to his contacts to Armin’s number and hit the call button, putting it to his ear.

It rang four times, and he thought it might go to voicemail, before Armin answered.

_“Hello?”_

“Hey Armin, it’s Eren. I feel like I haven’t spoken to you in a really long time.”

_“Eren!”_  Armin sounded so stupidly happy to hear from him that it made Eren feel guilty. They’d gone to see a movie recently, but it had been as a group. He and Armin hadn’t hung out alone ever since the blond had come to talk to him about Mikasa. And that hadn’t _really_  been a hangout, it had been a short discussion to address his concerns, after which Eren had promptly passed out on his bed.

_“How are you? How’s work?”_

“Work’s fine,” Eren said with a small laugh. “And I’m good. Just uh, you know, was thinking that we haven’t been seeing much of each other lately. My fault, I think. But—did you want to maybe hang out tonight? I can come over, we can watch some movies and I can crash at yours.”

_“I would love that, but I’m actually out of town on a work thing.”_  Armin sounded like he’d just run over Eren’s dog and didn’t know how to tell him. _“Raincheck?”_

“Yeah. Of course, yeah. Just let me know when you’re available and if I’m not working the night shift, we can hang out.”

_“Sounds good! I’m really sorry, Eren.”_

“Don’t be, it’s cool.”

_“I’ll talk to you later.”_

Armin was about to hang up when something occurred to Eren and he called out to him, hoping he’d caught him. When the other spoke once more, he sighed in relief, hesitated, then worded his next question very carefully.

“Um, say something—happened. Like, a traumatic event involving, uh, bunnies.” He winced at the stupidity of it, but kept going anyway. “How would someone get over that? Like, they don’t think they mind bunnies, but just thinking of them makes them want to vomit in fear because of what happened _involving_  the bunnies. Can they do anything?”

_“Well,”_ Armin seemed to hesitate, as if wanting more details, but he seemed to think better of it and continued, _“It really depends. On the trauma, I mean. For example, people who go to war and come back with PTSD, that’s a little bit more difficult to help them get over. It’s something that doesn’t really have a cure, and even with time it may never go away. But for your, uh, fear of bunnies, I think exposure would help diminish the fear a little bit. Again, it depends on the trauma, I can’t—really be sure on the answer without more information, but if it’s just a matter of being afraid of them, you can probably work on being **less** afraid by spending time around them.” _

“Right.” Time around a Werewolf while in their wolf form. Great. Eren wondered if the trauma of almost being eaten for hours on end counted as something exposure wouldn’t help with. “Yeah, that—I guess that makes sense. Um. Thanks Armin. I was just, you know, wondering. For a friend.”

_“Sure.”_ He didn’t sound convinced, but he had the decency not to say anything. _“You can talk to me about anything, Eren. You know that, right?”_

Everyone was saying that to him lately. He wished he could take them up on the offer, but this wasn’t something he could talk to people about. Maybe he _should_  take Levi up on talking to his psychologist friend. Wolf or not, as long as he was a good one, he would be able to help. And being a wolf himself would be even _more_  helpful because Eren could be completely open.

Something to think about, he supposed.

“I know. Thanks Armin, but I’m fine. I promise. I’ll talk to you later, okay? Enjoy your work thing.”

_“Thanks Eren. Good night.”_

“Yeah, night.”

He hung up and tossed his phone back onto the nightstand, falling onto his back and throwing one arm over his eyes. His music was still blaring through the headphones around his neck, almost loud enough for him to hear every word.

Exposure. He would have to be around the wolves more to get over his fear. He didn’t think he could be around Erwin, it would legitimately just have him freeze in place and die when the wolf broke out of the cage.

But Levi...?

Levi didn’t seem interested in hurting him. Whatever weird protectiveness he felt, the wolf felt too. He’d been protecting him the whole time Erwin had been trying to eat him, and even that first night in the storage room, Levi had been completely normal, wandering over and using Eren as a pillow.

Maybe he could stand to be around Levi for just a little bit. Just go over, spend ten minutes with the wolf—at a safe distance, a _very_  safe distance—and then come home. He’d prefer to go _with_  someone, but that wasn’t really possible. Not only would Levi’s secret be out, but Eren didn’t know how the wolf would react to another human being around.

Hell, he still wasn’t sure he knew how the wolf would react to _him_  being around. But he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t lie in bed, shaking and twitching, remembering the horrible night over and over again. He couldn’t do this every month, it would drive him insane. And he worried about how he would react with Levi if he didn’t get at least a _little_  more comfortable. What if every time the full moon came, it took a week for Eren to get back to normal with him? Every month it would take time for him to get over it, and that could cause strain on their relationship.

He didn’t want that. He _liked_  Levi. The guy was funny and nice and a hell of an author. He didn’t want to be scared of him, he wanted to get over this. He didn’t think he’d ever be _fully_  okay with Erwin, but with Levi...?

Eren’s brain oscillated back and forth between staying put and going out. He knew Armin was right, and exposure would help, and Levi _was_  the safer of all the wolves, but still...

He was scared. What if for some reason Levi _wasn’t_  okay with him? What if he broke out? Eren didn’t have a truck to hide in this time.

Rolling onto his side, he stared at his phone, going over everything he’d spoken to Armin about. He really did think he would try talking to Levi’s psychologist friend. Hopefully he could get sessions for free, considering it was Levi’s fault to begin with.

Sighing and climbing to his feet, he snatched up his phone and shoved it into his pocket before heading out. The corridor was dark and he realized it was past eleven by now. He’d have to be quick about it or he wouldn’t have enough sleep and would be miserable at work the next day.

Mikasa’s light was still on, shining out from the crack beneath the door, and he knocked lightly before opening it. She turned from her computer and he saw she was still working on the genealogy. It made him feel guilty for not helping her, but that was difficult to do now that he knew so much about Levi. He was almost tempted to tell her that Levi didn’t even remember his parents, but that wasn’t his place so he kept that to himself.

“Hey,” he said quietly, shutting her door.

“Hi. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just—I need to go out for a while. Can I borrow your car?”

She eyed him almost suspiciously, and at first he wondered if she suspected where he was going but when she spoke, he realized that wasn’t it. “Am I gonna get my car back in one piece?”

He felt a flush creeping up the back of his neck at her words. Stupid Erwin, fucking up his truck. He still hadn’t gotten it back, apparently it was still being worked on. He’d had to find excuses to tell his parents as to why the repairs were taking so long. The current lie was one part being out of stock with the supplier.

“Yes, you’ll get it back in one piece.” _I hope,_ he added silently.

She nodded her head towards the dresser and he moved to it, grabbing the keys and shoving them into his pocket. He nodded in thanks and turned to leave when she spoke again.

“Where are you going?”

Eren froze. “Uh, you know, just—out. You know, around, at places. Outside. Somewhere.”

He hurried out of the room before she could ask any more questions, shutting her door and then rushing down the corridor. His mother was probably sleeping by now, and his dad was at the store with Frieda Reiss, so as long as Jean wasn’t magically outside, nobody would be able to follow him to find out where he was headed.

He hoped the answer wasn’t too obvious; he didn’t need people showing up at Levi’s house and wondering why he had a wolf in his basement.

Eren exited the house and leapt off the porch steps, hurrying towards Mikasa’s car while his eyes darted around nervously. He knew no wolves were out to get him right now, but he couldn’t help but feel nervous, knowing it was the full moon.

Getting the door open, he hurried into the car and started it, beginning the drive to Levi’s house. The closer he got, the more scared he became. All he could think about was being trapped in the truck with Erwin bearing down on him and Levi struggling to keep him safe. His hands began to sweat and his heart thudded wildly in his chest.

It only got worse the closer he got. By the time he was halfway up the hill on Rose street, he’d slowed the car to a veritable crawl, scared of what he would find at the top of the hill. When he finally turned the last bend, his heart actually hurt from pounding so hard and his eyes darted around like mad, making sure nothing was going to come at him from the shadows.

Stopping in front of the house, Eren breathed hard, staring at the front door, hands trembling. Something moved to his left and he almost floored it right through the front of Levi’s house, but he managed to get his foot off the gas at the last second, twisting quickly to see what it was.

The wind. It was the fucking wind, rustling through the trees.

“Okay.” Eren turned off the car and forced himself to stick the key in his pocket. The wolf probably knew he was there. It could probably hear him, smell him. He was still alive and he didn’t hear any howling or growling so he was likely okay.

Forcing himself to move, Eren spent at least ten minutes convincing himself to get out of the car, finally doing so when being outside started to freak him out more than being in Levi’s house. Exiting the car, he bolted for the front door without looking at his surroundings and slammed into it, turning the knob.

Locked. Of _course_  it was locked! Levi _always_  locked his door, and he would _definitely_  lock it the night he was going to be turning into a fucking _wolf_!

“Calm down,” he forced out, breathing still ragged and hands shaking. “Calm down. Calm down.”

He turned and eyed the forest, spots dancing in front of his eyes. He was starting to hyperventilate.

Crouching in front of the door, Eren lowered his head and struggled to calm himself down. Erwin wasn’t here. He wasn’t fucking here! He was fine, he was okay. Nothing was coming for him.

Nothing except that malicious, evil _something_  Levi kept sensing.

_Not helping,_ his brain snapped at him, especially since his current protector was locked in a cage beneath his feet.

He struggled to get his breathing back under control, closing his eyes—which was a terrifying things to do, but he managed—and focussing on every inhale and exhale. After about five minutes, he’d gotten his breathing back down to a normal rate and opened his eyes, struggling to remain calm. Nothing had come out to eat him yet, so he should stop panicking.

Easier said than done, and he knew it, but he was trying and that was all that mattered.

Forcing himself to remember that he wasn’t in any danger right then, Eren stood on shaky legs and made his way down the porch steps. He had half a mind to rush back to the car and leave, but he wanted to at least try and see this through so he moved slowly around the side of the house, head swivelling continuously in an attempt to watch for danger. He was about to give up halfway around the house, his panic mounting, when he saw a window open. It looked to be the one in Levi’s room, suggesting he often slept with it open because it never seemed to be closed.

“He should be more careful,” Eren muttered to himself, realizing the ridiculousness of his statement only once he’d said it. Eren’s family never even _locked_  their doors. But Levi was from the city, weren’t they all weird and paranoid?

Moving back to the porch and struggling not to look over his shoulder, Eren climbed up onto the railing and then onto the roof, walking cautiously to the window and pushing it open more. He let out a shout when he all but fell into the room, foot catching on the sill and rubbed at his elbow.

Standing, he paused briefly so he could listen, waiting for—something. He didn’t know what, but maybe some kind of warning that the wolf didn’t appreciate his presence.

Nothing.

Walking to the door, he eased it open and looked down the corridor. It was pitch black, he couldn’t see a thing. One hand felt along the wall for the light and when he flipped it, he let out a shout when he saw a wolf at the end of the corridor.

He blinked and the wolf was gone.

“Fuck!” He covered his eyes and sank to his knees, trying to calm himself down. “Erwin isn’t here! He’s not fucking here! Calm the fuck down!”

He wished he weren’t alone. He wished someone had come with him. He wished this hadn’t happened to him. He hated this. He hated being afraid.

Struggling to get himself back under control, he took a breath and then pulled his hands away from his face, using the wall to help him stand. Peeking out into the corridor again, he saw nothing, as expected. He moved slowly down the hallway and then down the stairs, heart pounding somewhere up in his throat. When he reached the first floor, he paused again, listening.

Still nothing.

He moved to the basement door and put his hand on the knob. His trembling was making the knob shake. He was trying to make it stop, but it didn’t work.

He’d been fine until Levi had reminded him of the full moon. He’d been fine once he and Levi had spoken. He’d thought he was over this, was okay with what had happened.

But he wasn’t. He wasn’t okay. He hated this. He didn’t want to be here. What if Levi attacked him? What if he broke out and attacked him?

Tightening his grip around the knob, Eren forced himself to turn it and opened the basement door. It scraped along the floor, the new door not having been fitted properly, and he peeked down the stairs.

No sound. No movement.

The light was on, but he assumed it was because Levi turned it on when he went down. After all, he was still human when he locked himself in, and he would get bored just sitting there in the dark.

“Okay,” Eren whispered. “Okay. You can do this. Let’s go.”

He put his foot on the first step, impressed with himself for having managed that much. He waited about ten seconds, then managed to move again, putting his other foot on the next step down. The descent was slow, and almost worse than if he’d just forced himself to run down the stairs. He was worried about what he would find.

What if Levi was in the cage and threw himself at the bars?

Or worse: what if Levi _wasn’t_  in the cage?

Struggling to keep his breathing calm, he kept moving down the steps all the way to the bottom. Once the cage came into view, his eyes immediately shot up to it, heart in his throat.

The wolf was there, near the bars, watching him with an almost bored-looking expression. Could wolves look bored? Eren didn’t know, but it looked bored.

It just watched while Eren made it the last few steps down, lying on its stomach with its paws out in front of itself. Yellow eyes followed the brunet while he approached, coming a few steps closer but still keeping his distance, just in case.

He stopped about five paces from the stairs, watching the wolf. It just kept staring at him, as if waiting for him to do or say something. He didn’t, he just stared back.

Eren stood there for a good thirty seconds, watching the wolf. It wasn’t hostile at all, nothing like Erwin. It was just lying there, watching him, as if wondering what he was doing there. There were no attempts being made to escape, no attempts to attack him. It just lay there, looking bored.

Swallowing hard, Eren slowly lowered himself to the ground, still relatively far away from the cage. He was almost completely seated when his eyes caught sight of the video camera in the corner, sitting on the tripod. It was obviously from the last time he’d come and he stood again, eyes back on the wolf, and slowly inched towards the other side of the room.

The wolf followed his movement with its eyes, but it looked more curious than anything else. He stopped in front of the camera and looked away from the wolf for only a second so he could pull the base free. When he turned it on, he checked the battery and saw that it was a quarter of the way charged.

Pushing his hand through the strap, he flipped open the screen so he could see what he was recording, then hit the record button while slowly moving back to where he’d started sitting down.

“Okay,” he said, his voice sounding weird to his own ears. He couldn’t stop his hands from shaking. “So, this is me. With the wolf. The nice one. Who doesn’t seem interested in eating me.” He reached out with one hand to help him sit, wincing when the cold cement floor seeped through the seat of his pants. His ass was going to go numb from the coldness of it. “Figured I should just—show what happened the last time we were alone. You know, in the storage room and all.”

The wolf tilted its head slightly, still watching Eren, then seemed to think, “whatever,” and figure he wasn’t interesting anymore because it lowered its head onto its front paws and closed its eyes.

Eren didn’t say anything else, he just kept recording. Every time he shifted, the wolf’s eyes would open, but it never moved. When Eren put the camera down, still recording, and stood so he could get a blanket and use the bathroom, the wolf’s head shot up and it looked unhappy that he was leaving. When he returned, the wolf was on its feet and it looked like it had been pacing. Eren couldn’t help but find it weird that it had been perfectly fine before he’d shown up, but now that he was actually _there_ , the thought of him leaving was worrying the beast.

When Eren sat back down and picked up the camera, the wolf moved to lie down again, facing Eren once more and resting its head on its front paws. This time, the eyes remained open.

“You’re an anomaly, aren’t you?” Eren asked it with a frown. “Or maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m the anomaly. But then Erwin attacked me, so... it has to be you.” But he knew Levi had killed his fiancé. He knew that it wasn’t just Levi on his own, or even Eren on his own. It was the two of them together, for whatever reason. Something about them as a unit was different.

Eren set the camera back down, and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. He’d found it in the upstairs closet and hoped Levi wouldn’t mind. It was warm and comfortable.

He knew he should be leaving soon, he had work in the morning and it was probably well past midnight by now, but every time he shifted, the wolf’s head jerked up. It was like it was afraid of Eren leaving. Afraid that he wasn’t going to come back.

It made him wonder if maybe the wolf was scared he was going to sleepwalk, too.

“Well,” Eren muttered, moving to turn off the camera since the battery had started flashing at him. “Levi did ask me to sleep with someone tonight. And Armin said exposure would help.” He glanced at the wolf. “You okay being my roommate for the night? You’re not gonna eat me or anything, right?”

It just stared at him with those unnaturally coloured eyes, somehow making a warmth spread through him, the same way it did when Levi was around. What _was_  it about this guy that made Eren feel so safe all the time? Even when he was a fucking wolf, Eren’s earlier fear seemed to slowly be ebbing. He didn’t think it would go away completely, but at least for now, he felt safe. He felt safer sleeping here, with the wolf, than he did alone at home.

“You’ve totally fucked me up, you know that?” he muttered to the wolf, lying down on his side facing it, bunching the blanket up beneath his head as a makeshift pillow.

The wolf lay its head back on its front paws, watching him. Eren fell asleep to the other’s yellow eyes locked onto his.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

When Levi woke up, he felt hot. Despite the coolness beneath him, the cement floor of the basement always cold, Levi felt like he was on fire. It was always like this after the change, but it felt worse today. He figured it was because the weather outside was warming up, and that coupled with his fever was probably making him feel hotter than usual.

Letting out a small groan, he rubbed at his face with both hands, wondering what time it was. Probably six, maybe a bit later. Sunup was at five forty-nine today, so it had to be after that, at the very least.

He knew he should get up, go to bed, but he didn’t want to move. His body ached, and the cold floor was at least offering him a small amount of comfort.

Inhaling deeply, he could smell Eren. He figured it was from his clothes, they’d been spending a lot of time together lately. Smelling Eren made him wonder if he was okay. He’d been worrying about him all the way until the change, wondering if tonight would be the night he would walk out of the house and not come back.

The thought made panic gnaw at his insides and he wondered if he would be able to call him. Eren would probably still be sleeping, and he might even be pissed if he was woken up so early, but Levi didn’t care. He wanted to make sure he was okay.

Twisting around so he could turn and crawl to the edge of the cage where his phone was, he caught something out of his peripheral and turned his head, his entire body breaking out in a cold sweat at what his eyes landed on.

Someone was lying on the floor outside the cage. They had their back to him, half-wrapped in a blanket, with their jean-clad legs exposed at the bottom and only the top of their head poking out at the top.

Panic set in immediately, with memories of Eld’s dead body, mangled and mauled right outside his cage. Just beyond his reach. Another wolf having murdered him right there, outside his cage, while he’d probably sat there and done nothing.

The panic began to rise exponentially when he realized something.

He could smell Eren. And the person lying there had brown hair.

Jesus _fucking_  Christ!

“Eren!” Levi leapt to his feet, one hand reaching out to grab at the bars. He let out a shout, pain sparking through his palm and quickly released it, his panic having momentarily made him forget that he couldn’t touch the stupid things. Luckily it had been held for such a short period of time that it was only a dull sting and would likely heal within a few minutes. Only advantage to wolf genes.

He instantly relaxed, closing his eyes and rubbing at his face with his uninjured hand when the body jerked, half-sitting up. Dragging his hand down his face when a loud groan escaped Eren, he looked back out through the bars when the brunet’s head fall back down onto the bunched up top of the blankets, rolling over so he was facing Levi. His eyes were just slits, barely even open, and he had the blanket up over his nose, covering most of his face.

“Why are you yelling at me so early in the morning all the time?” Eren asked sleepily, his voice so muffled that Levi had to strain to hear it, which was saying something with his impeccable hearing. “Every time I’m with you, you yell at me,” Eren whined, his eyes closing fully again. He nuzzled into the makeshift pillow, seeming more than fine with going back to sleep.

Levi was still in shock, because it took him much too long to remember he could let himself out. Reaching carefully through the bars for the new lock, he closed his hand around the handle, raised it, then jerked it to the left, the lock sliding out of place. Realizing he couldn’t actually push the door open, which he hadn’t thought of when he’d gone in and pulled it closed with the steel lock, Levi moved to the other side of the cage and reached through the bars for his shirt, pulling it into the cage and then moving back to the gate, pushing it open with the shirt.

Once he was out, he stormed over to Eren and kicked him rather violently in the stomach.

Eren jerked into a sitting position, letting out a harsh cough and gasping, wrapping both arms around his middle. He looked wide awake, now. And very angry.

“What the _fuck_ , Levi!” He reached out and swung a fist at him, but the Werewolf had already moved away, grabbing his jeans and wrenching them on so he wasn’t _completely_  naked. He wasn’t embarrassed by any means, but he always thought it best to be clothed when around Eren. Just in case of any _accidents_.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded angrily, zipping up his jeans and pushing the button through the hole before stomping back over to Eren. “Are you fucking crazy?! How long have you been here?!”

“I don’t know? A while?” Eren rubbed at his stomach, his face screwed up in pain. Levi worried he may have kicked him a little too hard, but his worry was overshadowed by his anger. And his _larger_  worry of what could have happened last night if he’d gotten out of his cage.

“How _long_ , Eren?!”

“Like, six hours? I don’t know, I got here around midnight, I think? I was gonna leave, but the wolf got all anxious and weird every time I moved so I just figured I’d stay.”

Rage began to bubble up from the pit of Levi’s stomach. “You figured you’d _stay_?!” He bellowed. “Eren, are you fucking _stupid_?!”

“Calm down, it’s fine,” Eren insisted, shifting so he was sitting cross-legged, still rubbing his stomach. Levi noticed he was still wearing his shoes, as if he’d literally walked in with a blanket and passed out.

“It’s not fucking fine, Eren! What the hell were you thinking?!”

“Will you calm down?” the brunet insisted, reaching out with one hand for the camera and holding it out to Levi. “It’s fine, trust me. You really think I’d have stayed if it wasn’t? Besides, you told me to stay with someone, so I did.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it!” Levi shouted, but he snatched the camera out of his hand anyway. “What if I’d gotten out?! What if I’d attacked you?! You were _sleeping_ , Eren! I could’ve broken out and fucking _killed_  you!”

“Pretty sure if I could survive a night in an upside down truck with Erwin out to get me and I woke up just fine, me sleeping here last night should be the least of your worries.”

Levi wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him. Or punch him. Or kick him again. He wanted to make him _understand_  that he was a stupid, stupid little shit who was doing something _completely_  irresponsible!

Before he was able to let his anger out, Eren motioned the camera, still rubbing his stomach with his other hand. “Just watch the video before you yell at me some more.”

Levi would’ve much rather yelled at him some more, but he scowled instead and turned the camera on. The screen was still open, presumably from Eren’s recording. The battery was flashing at him so he moved across the basement to the table in the corner and set the machine down, plugging it into the power cord. The flashing stopped and instead, a small lightning bolt appeared in the corner where the battery was, denoting it was charging.

He went through the digital memory, looking for the last entry and hit the play button. The first thing he focussed on was how badly the camera was shaking. Eren’s hands were trembling so badly that he could barely hold the stupid thing straight. If he was so fucking scared, _why_  had he come by?! Levi was _so_  pissed!

 _"Okay,”_ video Eren said, his voice strained and also trembling. The camera was shifting, as if Eren were walking. Levi watched the wolf on the screen follow Eren’s movements, but otherwise, it didn’t react. He frowned, eyes on the wolf that he knew was him. _“So, this is me,”_  video Eren continued. _“With the wolf. The nice one. Who doesn’t seem interested in eating me.”_  More shifting, and the camera lowered. Levi assumed Eren had taken a seat. _“Figured I should just—show what happened the last time we were alone. You know, in the storage room and all.”_

Levi watched the wolf while Eren spoke, the way it just stared at him, watched him intently. He hit the fast forward button, speeding through the rest of the night. The wolf didn’t show any aggression at all. It looked up, it stood, it paced, it lay down, it looked up, it lay down. Over and over, it just did normal, docile actions. Not once did it ever show any form of aggression. It didn’t act like it wanted to hurt Eren at all.

It made Levi think of the last time, with Erwin. He’d been trying to protect Eren _from_  Erwin. Even Eren himself had admitted that outside, the only reason he hadn’t died was because Levi had been protecting him all night.

The wolf had the same weird protective instincts towards Eren that Levi had. He’d already deduced that himself based on how he felt around Eren closer to the change, but...

 _Why_?!

He stopped the video, setting the camera down and turning to Eren. The brunet was yawning widely, still rubbing at his stomach. Levi wandered back over to him and Eren eyed him warily, as if worried he was going to get kicked again.

Instead, Levi bent down and cupped his face in both hands, letting them drag down his neck briefly and then back up to his face, watching him intently.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ll live.”

Nodding once, Levi released him and stood. Eren shifted to stand as well and Levi held out his hand. Eren nodded a thanks, taking it and Levi hauled him to his feet. “I should probably go, I have the morning shift. What time is it, anyway?”

He answered his own question, pulling his phone out of his pocket and groaning.

“Six twelve? Really? I could’ve slept way longer.”

“Stop whining,” Levi insisted, a little annoyed Eren was being so calm about this. To be fair, he didn’t understand how weird this was. A wolf not attacking a human? That didn’t just _happen_. Levi was going to have to send the footage to Erwin.

“I’ll make you breakfast.”

“Sweet, thanks!” Eren grinned and Levi just grunted, moving across the basement to pick up his socks and shoes then heading upstairs, mind still on the video. Eren followed along behind him happily.

They went into the kitchen, Levi dropping his things on one of the chairs for now, then he moved to the fridge and pulled it open, perusing its contents.

“Eggs and bacon okay?”

“Sure, I love eggs! Sunny-side up, please!”

Levi just grunted again and took all the ingredients out, moving to the stove and pulling a pan out of the cupboard. He made quick work of getting everything going, sticking some bread into the toaster, wanting to make sure Eren wasn’t late for work since he’d still have to go home and change.

He was in the process of flipping the bacon when he turned to Eren.

“How did the wolf react when you showed up?”

“Huh?” Eren asked, lifting his head. He’d been snoozing with his head in his arms on the table. Levi tried not to be annoyed that the moron was napping while he was making them food.

“The wolf. You probably didn’t start recording until after you’d been here for a while, so how was the wolf when you first showed up?”

“Fine. I mean, it just looked at me and watched me, same as in the video. Didn’t react any differently.” He shrugged.

“Hm.” Levi turned back to the food, pushing the spatula beneath one egg and moving it closer to the center of the pan. “Why did you come, anyway? I thought you were scared.” Something further evidenced by the shaking camera.

“Armin told me to.”

“Armin told you to spend the night with a wolf?”

“Well, not exactly. He told me to get more exposure to the bunnies.”

Levi paused in what he was doing and slowly turned to look at Eren. “The what?”

“Well I couldn’t tell him I was traumatized when Werewolves tore apart my truck!” Eren insisted, flailing his arms. “I had to improvise! I told him a friend had gone through a trauma involving bunnies and asked him how to fix it. He said to get exposure, so I was coming to get some exposure.” He slouched in his seat and crossed his arms defensively. “It kind of worked, a little bit. I mean, you’re a lot less into eating me, so that helps.”

“Why does it even matter?” Levi turned back to the bacon and cursed, quickly grabbing a plate and beginning to pull pieces out of the pan before they burned or crisped any further. “Why do you need to be okay with the wolves? I’m fine with you being scared of them, it’s a normal response.”

When Eren was silent, Levi turned to look at him, sucking on his thumb since he’d burned it grabbing at the bacon. Eren looked uncomfortable, but also a little sad, like he didn’t want to say anything.

“Eren?”

“I just—I don’t want to be afraid of you.”

“You’re not afraid of me,” Levi reminded him, turning to put the two finished eggs onto another plate, adding a few slices of bacon and snatching a piece of toast from the toaster. He grabbed utensils from the cutlery drawer, then wandered over to the brunet, putting it down in front of him before returning to the stove to make his own eggs.

“I would’ve been,” Eren whispered, the words carrying easily to Levi. He paused in what he was doing, but didn’t turn.

“Why?”

“Because,” Eren insisted, and Levi could hear his fork scratching at the plate, obviously playing with his food. “I just... last night, before I came over, I kept thinking about what happened the last time. I kept worrying Erwin was coming back, that a wolf would get into my house. That you guys were coming for me. It scared me, and I knew that if I slept with that fear and woke up today, I’d be just as scared of you as I was the last time you’d turned. I didn’t want that, so when Armin said to get exposure, I figured... I’ve survived alone in a locked room with you once before, so I felt like it would be safer to do this with you. I would’ve waited to ask you, but I didn’t know if I could survive the night without being terrified by morning, so I just—came over.”

Levi sighed, cracking two eggs straight into the pan and breaking the yolks, resting the spatula on the edge. He turned to Eren, leaning back against the counter and crossing his arms.

“Did it help?”

Eren shrugged, eyes on his plate. “A little, I guess. It’s hard to explain. I feel safe with you. Not like, I’m not scared the wolf will eat me, but more just... being with you makes me safe. Even when I’m terrified, like that first day when you and Erwin were all over me after you came home from being locked in the storage room with me. I was scared, but when you sat beside me and rubbed my back and just... I don’t know. I felt okay. I was scared, but I was okay.” He let his fork fall against the plate and leaned back in the chair, but still didn’t turn to Levi. “Whatever instinct is making you keep me safe is the same instinct that makes me feel like I am when you’re with me. It’s weird, and I hate it, but I also kind of... don’t really hate it at the same time.” He glanced at Levi then. “Does that make sense?”

“Yeah,” he said, turning back to his eggs and flipping them over. “It makes sense.”

They were silent for a moment, and Levi could hear Eren beginning to eat behind him. Once his eggs were ready, he pulled the second piece of toast from the toaster, added the bacon and went to join Eren at the table, the two of them eating in silence.

When Eren was almost done his plate, Levi finally spoke.

“Do you want to come back tonight?”

A short pause.

“Sure. I’ll come by after work.”

“Okay.”

They finished their food in silence.

* * *

Work had been fairly uneventful that day. Eren had arrived home in plenty of time to shower, dress, and head to work to replace his father and Frieda. They both wished him a good shift and left for some much needed sleep while Eren counted out a new till and checked all the stock.

Levi showed up an hour later to replenish the contents of his fridge, and while shopping he asked Eren if he liked pancakes. When he responded in the affirmative, Levi muttered that he would make some the following morning and went to hunt down the ingredients. He left soon afterwards, telling Eren he had some errands to run and some writing to catch up on, but that he could come by whenever he was off work.

Then he gave Eren a spare key to his house and promptly left before the brunet could process what had just happened. He knew that it was only so he could let himself in, since Levi would likely be in the cage, but it still made his face redden and he tried not to look into it too much.

His shift was relatively normal and boring save for a visit from Jean halfway through the day, wherein he expressed, rather loudly, that Mikasa had told him Eren hadn’t come home until the morning, and he then began asking questions about where he’d been.

Eren had dodged them as best he could, mostly because he didn’t want to give Jean the wrong idea. Either he admitted he was at Levi’s and everyone thought they were dating, he admitted he was at Levi’s in a friends capacity and Jean demanded to come along, or he lied. It was easier to lie, though he wasn’t very good at it.

It was clear Jean didn’t believe him, but he didn’t say anything about it. He just joked with Eren and made plans for the weekend, then left to go to work. Eren wasn’t sure he believed him, either, because he was fairly certain Jean didn’t actually _work_. That guy would cruise through his whole life without working a day of it, he was sure.

At the end of his shift, his father and Frieda were back, so he counted out the till and left the store, heading home for dinner. He ate with Mikasa and his mother, and then told them he was going out for the night and likely wouldn’t be back until morning. When Carla asked where he was going, he changed the subject, kissed her cheek, and left the room to pack himself some items for the evening. He tried to ignore the way Mikasa’s eyes had burned into his back while he’d been putting on his shoes.

Not wanting to borrow Mikasa’s car again, since it would give her the opportunity to ask him where he was going, he instead walked to Levi’s house. It wasn’t particularly far and he made it there in under twenty minutes. The walk up the hill was the worst part, and he reminded himself to ask Levi when he could expect his truck back.

When he finally reached the house, he stood on the porch catching his breath before unlocking the door. He took off his shoes in the entrance this time and headed for the basement door once he’d locked the front door again.

Descending the stairs, he paused halfway down when he found an air mattress, fully decked out with a sheet, blanket and pillow, then slowly moved further down and pulled the strap of his bag off his shoulder.

Levi was already sitting in the cage, scowling at his computer screen as if it had offended him. Eren realized the sun was still up, which explained why he was still in human form. He hadn’t actually considered that on his way up there.

“Someone’s out of shape,” Levi commented, hitting a key on his keyboard repeatedly, suggesting he was deleting something.

Eren felt his cheeks warm but he didn’t say anything, dropping his bag beside the air mattress and giving it a little kick with his foot.

“What’s this?”

“Didn’t want you to catch cold.”

“What about you?”

“I’m fine, the change makes me feverish and the floor is cool. Usually when I turn back into a human, I go up to bed.”

“Right.” Eren stepped around the mattress and then sat down on it, bouncing slightly. He found it to be oddly considerate, and wondered if Levi had always had the air mattress, or if this had been his ‘errand’ of the day. “Working on your book?”

“Trying to. It’s not cooperating.” Levi sighed and snapped the top of his laptop shut, turning the device sideways and setting it down outside the cage. “How was work?”

Eren shrugged. “Fine, I guess. Boring. Mum said Frieda seems to like working days so I’ll probably be working a bunch of night shifts once she’s on full time. Means you’ll be working with her, mostly.”

Levi didn’t seem particularly happy with this news, but Eren figured it was just because he’d gotten used to working with him. Levi’d be fine once he and Frieda got to know each other.

The thought of them together suddenly made Eren uncomfortable. He’d been fine with it earlier, when his mother had told him about it, but now he suddenly wished they wouldn’t spend time together. Frieda was very pretty, and Eren felt... jealous, he supposed. He didn’t want Levi to start liking her, which was a ridiculous thing to think.

“So,” Eren said, trying to get his mind off Levi and Frieda together, “how was your day?”

“Fine. Ran some errands, did some writing.”

“What isn’t cooperating about the book?” Eren asked, shifting so he was sitting cross-legged and gripping his ankles. The air mattress was a lot more comfortable than the floor, and he appreciated Levi getting it.

“I can’t make a believable relationship between the main character and the kidnapper.”

“Well, obviously,” Eren said with a frown. “I mean, the guy kidnapped him. Unless you’re making it into one of those Stockholm syndrome things.”

“That was the idea.”

Eren winced. “You’re dark and twisted, you know that?”

“You tell me this, but just think about my other books and how well they sell. If I’m dark and twisted, what does that make everyone else who reads them?”

Eren had nothing to say to that, especially considering he was one of the people reading the books, so he just changed the subject. “Can I ask you something?”

“You just did.”

“Don’t be a dad,” Eren insisted, rolling his eyes. Levi just smirked, but motioned for him to continue. “You write about gay pairings a lot, but you mentioned your fiancé’s name was Isabelle. So are you... a supporter of LGTBQ, or are you...?” He trailed off, not sure how to ask his question.

Levi seemed amused, though his face remained neutral. It was his eyes that betrayed how much he enjoyed Eren’s discomfort. “I don’t discriminate.”

“So you’re bisexual, then?”

“I suppose.”

“Oh.” Eren grinned. “Me too. I mean, I think I am. I’ve never really _dated_  anyone before, in the full sense of the word. I’ve been _on_  dates, but I’ve never _dated_ , you know? But I think guys are just as hot as girls are, and I’m pretty open about what kind of porn I watch.” Eren paused, eyes widening slightly. “Why did I just tell you that?”

“It’s not like I don’t watch porn.”

“I know, but still.” Eren shook his head. “Back to normal topics. Okay. So you write about gays a lot. Would you ever write about a straight couple?”

“I don’t know, don’t you think that’s boring?” Levi shifted on the ground and Eren wondered if he was uncomfortable. Then again, the last time he’d seen Levi in the cage in human form, he’d been on the floor and hadn’t complained. “There are thousands of books out there about straight couples, I want to be a little different. I plan on writing a book with an asexual lead next. I’ve contemplated writing about a trans man, but hesitate with that. Some people may take offense if I do it incorrectly, so I figure it’s safer to stick to what I know.”

“That’s kinda cool. That you want to put out material that isn’t as popular.”

Levi shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal, but it obviously meant something to him or he wouldn’t have mentioned the reason why he did it.

“Have you ever considered writing a book about Werewolves?”

“Sometimes, but it’s a little harder.”

Eren cocked an eyebrow, wondering if he’d heard wrong. “Harder? How can it be harder, you _are_  one.”

“Which makes it more dangerous. I’d have a hard time knowing where to draw the line between fiction and reality. Is keeping something out a good idea, or does it make it suspicious? If I add in something people didn’t previously know, is that more fodder for people to latch onto or will they gloss over it?” He shrugged one shoulder. “You write things like that down, publish it, pretty soon people might start to notice weird things about their friends, their loved ones, coworkers.” He sighed. “I don’t want to cause anyone any problems. It’s better to keep people in the dark about these sorts of things. If I wrote a book about it, and then someone who had a friend allergic to silver, for example, read it, they might try and see if anything else about their friend matches the book.”

“People aren’t _that_  crazy, are they?”

Levi just gave him a look, and it made Eren wonder how many people had gone nuts trying to see if their broody, always out of the sun friends sparkled in the sunlight like a stupid sparkly vampire. He figured even if Levi was wrong, it would still be safer not to tempt people with testing the waters. It could end up exposing Werewolves and, even if it didn’t, there ran the risk of people being seriously injured.

“But Vampires are okay to write about?” Eren asked, remembering Levi’s comment about them being unhygienic and rude.

“Vampires don’t associate with humans the way other Supernatural beings do. They tend to stay in their own little corners of the world and only come out when they need to feed. Even then, they try not to do it in areas where other Supernatural beings live.” Levi smirked a little. “Vampires are scared of Werewolves. We have very sharp teeth for non-Vamps, and we’re not the only ones allergic to silver. Overall, we actually have less weaknesses than them, since we can afford to keep fighting until the sun comes up. Not as much of an option for them.”

“Oh.” Eren hadn’t realized that, but it made him think of something he’d been meaning to ask for a while. “So the silver thing, obviously, is real from the legends.” Eren nodded towards the bars of the cage. “Have you always been allergic to silver, then? Like, even when you were little?”

“Yes and no.” Levi shifted a little closer to the bars, holding out his hand and ghosting his fingers along the bars, not touching them, but almost. “Before the first change, I was allergic to silver, but it was a mild allergy. The kind you get where you just kind of break out into hives wherever it touches you. It didn’t bother me that much, it was just a little itchy and painful. Now when I touch silver, it burns. It’s like someone taking a hot iron and stabbing it against my skin.”

Eren winced at the image in his mind. “But you and Erwin were both going at it the last time, and when you turned back into humans, the burns weren’t that bad.”

“We heal fast.” Levi shrugged. “No one knows why. We figure it has to do with the way our bodies have to rearrange our bones and muscles. Internally, we have to be able to heal quickly, so he figure it’s the same for injuries, too. I haven’t gotten sick once since I shifted, so our immune system is really high, as well.”

“Convenient,” Eren muttered. “Come flu season, I _always_  get knocked on my ass.”

“That’s once a year. Would you rather be a bloodthirsty wolf three days a month?”

“Touche,” Eren said, pointing one finger at Levi. “What about the full moon? Before you turned, what happened then?”

“Nothing, really.” Levi’s hand dropped from the bars, where it’d still been hovering and he leaned back, hands flat against the ground behind him. “I didn’t notice anything different when I was younger, but after the first few changes I realized that as a child, I used to feel uncomfortable and edgy on nights of the full moon. I had trouble sleeping, moreso than I do now, and I would get feverish and weak. At the time, I didn’t really think of the lunar cycle, but after finding out what I was, it kind of made me realize that must’ve been the reason.”

“Is it like that for everyone?”

“No,” Levi reached up to scratch at his cheek, eyes on Eren. “It’s different for all of us. Erwin says he doesn’t remember feeling any differently as a child. It affects everyone in different ways, kind of like how allergies in general affect people differently. Erwin says his silver allergy was worse than mine before the change, it was almost the same as it is now for him. It would burn his skin and leave behind large welts. I guess it just depends on the person.”

“Huh.” Eren frowned, digesting his words. When he realized Levi was staring at him, he offered him a smile. “Sorry. This is just—it’s interesting, you know? I always think of new things to ask you. I hope it doesn’t bug you.”

“I don’t mind,” Levi admitted. “I think it’ll help with your fear if you have more to go on, anyway.”

“Right.” Eren looked down at his hands, still gripping his ankles. He frowned when he noticed that stupid ink smudge was still present on the inside of his left wrist, but considering how hard he’d been scrubbing at it, he figured it was some kind of bruising that didn’t seem to hurt. Like when someone took blood and didn’t press down hard enough once the needle came out. It’d go away on its own, so he didn’t dwell on it. “So what’s the point of it, anyway?”

“Point?”

“The whole Werewolf thing? I mean, turning into a wild beast three nights a month seems a little, I don’t know, useless?”

“It’s not just during the full moon,” Levi said, which made Eren suddenly _extremely_  uncomfortable, thoughts going to Erwin appearing on a random day of the month and tearing his throat out.

“What?”

“Don’t look so scared, Eren, it’s not the same thing.” Levi sat forward again, resting his elbows on his knees. “We can turn into wolves whenever we want, it’s just during the full moon that we lose control of ourselves and become animals. Any other time of the month, we can turn and be completely normal. You can usually tell by the eyes.” He motioned upwards with one hand vaguely. “When we’re in control, our eyes usually stay the same colour. When the wolf takes over, they turn yellow.”

“Oh.” So as long as he didn’t piss off Erwin, he wouldn’t have any reason to shift into a wolf and come after him. Good to know. “So, do you? Turn into a wolf outside the full moon?”

“You saw how painful it is, what do you think?”

“Right.” Eren hadn’t really considered that. “But I mean, people do, right?”

“Occasionally. Usually just the pack leaders and rogues. Rogues, like I told you before, hunt for sport so they turn whenever they feel like it. Pack leaders generally turn during sentencing when a wolf is being disposed of. They also turn if they come across a wolf who’s just turned. Outside the full moon, I mean.” Levi scratched at his cheek again. “For example, when Hanji was turning, Erwin and I both turned into wolves because we had to keep Hanji inside and calm. The wolf had control of them, so it was our job to make sure they didn’t get out and hurt anyone. If we’d stayed in our human forms, the wolf would’ve smelled that we were different, but probably still would’ve attacked. As wolves, it just kind of growled at us, but it was outnumbered so it stayed put.”

“How long does the first change last? Since it’s outside the full moon, I mean.”

“It’s different for everyone, but a few hours, I guess. Six, maybe seven.” Levi shrugged, as if he had never really thought of it. “Hanji isn’t a born wolf though, so they can’t change on command like we can. Only wolves who have it in their genes can do that. If Hanji ever found a wolf outside the full moon with yellow eyes, they’d have to run and call us to deal with it.”

“Has that happened before?”

“Once, but Erwin handled it.” The corners of Levi’s lips twitched. “Hanji runs really fast.”

“They seem like a good friend. It’d be nice to meet them.”

“One day, maybe. They’re a little eccentric, I wouldn’t want them to scare you away.”

“I don’t think anyone could scare me worse than Erwin,” Eren insisted.

“It’s because you haven’t met Hanji.” Levi scowled a little, as if imagining the two of them together.

“So you never turn into a wolf just because?” Eren asked. “It’s always on the full moon?”

“I wouldn’t say _never_ ,” Levi corrected. “I have on occasion, especially out here. There’s a lot of open forest here, and sometimes it’s nice to just go for a run. I have to be careful, though. I don’t need people from town seeing a wolf running around and causing a panic.”

“You’ve been out there in wolf form before?”

“Once or twice since I got here, yeah.”

“Cool.” Eren grinned. “Hey, what about that other thing?”

Levi frowned, confused. “Other thing?”

“You know, when Erwin was being a douche-canoe and he threw me in the cage and you went all growly and angry and your hands went all weird.”

The way Levi stiffened then concerned him a little and he saw the older man look down at his hands, resting on his knees. At first he thought he’d said something wrong, but when Levi answered, it was clear he hadn’t.

“That’s—rare. It doesn’t happen often in wolves. Usually it’s a full shift or nothing, but there have been cases of Werewolves being able to partially shift. Usually just in the hands and face, around the mouth, but there are some who can turn more to fit the Hollywood representation of the Werewolf. I’ve been looking into it since Erwin told me.”

“Oh.” Eren felt like this was a bad thing, with the way Levi was reacting. “Is it not good that you can partially shift?”

“It’s more... dangerous. If I lose control of myself, if I get angry or stressed, I might shift unintentionally. The hands I can hide, I did it once before when you didn’t even know what I was. But if my teeth start to turn into fangs, or I go further and start shifting even more without meaning to, it could be bad.”

Eren thought about it for a while, trying to think of Levi being that angry. He’d only witnessed it himself the one time, but apparently it had happened twice. Still, Levi had hidden it perfectly fine the first time around, so it was likely he could keep it hidden the next time, as well.

“Considering how angry you got with Annie when she punched me, I think that you’ve mostly got it under control,” he insisted, offering him a smile. Levi said nothing, but he did at least nod once.

“I’m trying. I think if I can control it a bit more, it might help me ensure I never accidentally shift.” He held one hand up and stared at it intently. Eren said nothing, letting him do his thing. It took almost two minutes, and he was positive Levi was sweating bullets with how hard he was concentrating, but he eventually managed to get his fingers to cooperate. The tips went black from the second knuckle upwards, and his nails lengthened and turned into points at the tips. It was really weird to watch, because Eren had always seen Levi as either human or wolf. Seeing even this one change that wasn’t entirely either was weird.

Well, weird _er_ , anyway.

“That’s kinda cool,” Eren insisted.

“You think this is cool? I could eviscerate you with these.”

“Yes, but I’m hoping you won’t,” Eren said slowly.

The smile he got in return made him feel a little better, and he watched Levi’s hand slowly return to normal, the blackness fading back to his usual skin tone and nails returning to short and blunt. “I’m glad you trust me enough not to kill you.”

Eren shrugged. “If you were going to, you would’ve by now.”

“True. Besides...” Levi trailed off then and his eyes lowered, his entire body going rigid. Eren saw his hands clench into fists and he realized he was about to change.

“Is it coming?”

He nodded stiffly and then began to stand, reaching behind himself to pull off his shirt.

Eren stood as well, wincing and crossing his arms defensively, hoping he wouldn’t offend Levi. “Um, if it’s—okay, I’m gonna go upstairs for this. It’s not, I mean, I’m not bothered by it but I don’t like seeing you in pain like that when I can’t do anything for you.”

“I understand,” Levi said, voice rougher than usual. He was taking his pants off now, kicking them out of the cage to join his shirt. “Go.”

Eren nodded once, turned, and then hurried up the stairs, exiting the basement and shutting the door. He wandered over to the kitchen and hadn’t even taken a seat at the table before he heard the first cry of pain.

It made him feel childish, but he covered his ears with both hands, not wanting to listen. Levi was a strong person, Eren knew this from everything he’d learned about him. He was strong, and to hear him crying out the way he was... it was hard.

Hearing him in pain like this proved how much it must hurt, how hard it was to endure. Eren hated that. He hated that he was around when it was happening. Hated that he could do nothing except sit in the kitchen with his hands over his ears, waiting for it to stop and hoping it would end quickly.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, but he wanted to be positive it was over before going back down, so he took his time, counting upwards from zero. Once he reached four hundred, he finally pulled his hands away from his ears and stood, moving to the basement door. He was less scared today than he had been the day before, but he was still cautious going down the stairs, moving slowly and keeping his eyes locked on the wolf once it came into view.

Just as the night before, the wolf watched him move closer. It wasn’t lying down today, it was just sitting, watching Eren move to the camera that Levi had left plugged in. He figured there was no harm in getting more footage, so he unplugged it and began recording again, aiming it at the wolf while he moved back to the air mattress, taking a seat.

“So this is day two with the wolf,” he said, feeling a little foolish. “Like yesterday, it’s just chillin’. Sitting there watching me like a weirdo.” He paled when he realized what he’d said and held one hand out to the wolf. “I don’t mean you’re a weirdo! You’re not a weirdo, you’re totally within your right to stare at me. I mean, I’m the one sitting in your basement, or, you know, the human you’s basement and—” He cut himself off. “You have no idea what I’m saying, why am I trying to explain myself to you?”

Sighing, Eren shook his head and kept the camera aimed at the wolf. He didn’t plan on staying there staring at the wolf all night, he’d brought his phone and a book, but at least for a little while he wanted to be sure he got some footage for Levi. He didn’t know what Levi would _do_  with the footage but, well, at least he’d have it.

The wolf tilted its head, still staring with those unnatural yellow eyes. After a while, it yawned and stood up, moving closer to the bars but not right against them. It lay down then, putting its head on its front paws, and watched Eren.

Just when the brunet was going to put the camera down and start reading, a thought occurred to him. The last time he’d been alone with the wolf—the time _before_  yesterday—he’d been petting it. He knew it was stupid, but exposure would help and right now, the wolf was in a cage. Eren would be able to get close to pet it, but if it suddenly attacked, he would have time to move away. Maybe not before getting bitten or scratched, but definitely before it killed him.

Not that he wanted to be infected, but well... He wondered how that worked. Why scratching? Wasn’t it the saliva that infected people? And if Levi randomly scratched or bit someone while in human form, would that also infect them, or was it only in wolf form? And what about the partial shift they had just been talking about? And what about other bodily fluids? He’d had a fiancé, presumably they’d had sex, which meant cum probably wasn’t something that would infect people.

“Why are you thinking about his cum? Stop thinking about cum,” Eren snapped to himself out loud. That was when he realized he was still recording and he instantly twisted the camera around to speak into it. “To clarify, I was thinking about how people get infected. I was thinking about biting and scratching, and then about if it affects people when the wolves are in human form. And then I started thinking about other bodily fluids and my brain went very perverted. So... yeah.” He turned it back around to face the wolf, the embarrassment making him want to change the topic.

Very quickly.

“Okay,” he said, getting to his feet. “I am going to get murdered for this in the morning, _but_  I am going to test something out.” He walked a bit closer to the cage, moving slowly and cautiously. The wolf didn’t even blink, it just started at him. “The first time I was alone with the wolf, I was petting it. It seemed to be okay with that, so I am... going to try this again. And hope it doesn’t bite off my hand. I need it. It is important to me.” He stopped in front of the cage and crouched, shifting his gaze to the screen of the camera to make sure the shot was okay.

He looked back at the wolf, who’d raised its head and was watching him. He pointed one finger at it.

“Do _not_  bite my hand off, okay? Seriously. I like my hand.”

The wolf just stared at him. Eren started to reach into the cage, hesitated, and then slowly let his fingers pass through the bars. When the wolf didn’t react, he continued slowly until his entire hand and wrist were in the cage. He wasn’t brave enough to touch the wolf’s head, so he settled for the back, letting his hand fall onto its fur. Just like the last time, he’d expected it to be coarse, but it was surprisingly soft.

Glancing up at the wolf to make sure of his welcome, it was staring at his hand, as if making sure Eren wasn’t suddenly going to go crazy and start hurting it. When he began to run his hand along the wolf’s back, stroking its fur a few times, it seemed to realize he was just petting it and faced forward again, resting its head on its front paws.

Eren checked the camera, seeing it was a little off center and shifting it so that it was showing up better. He pet along the wolf’s back and flank, and then moved a bit closer so he could pet its neck. It didn’t react, and he wanted to try for the head, but that would be pushing his luck, so he just stuck with the neck and back.

He stayed there petting it for a few minutes, enjoying the softness of the fur. It kind of made him wish he had a dog, but then he figured he didn’t need one since he had a wolf. Not that Levi was his, but well, at least he could come by three times a month and pet it.

When Eren moved away so he could get back on the air mattress and grab his book, the wolf turned to him sharply, almost as if it were offended he was leaving. Eren stared at it for a few seconds, then moved back to the air mattress and kicked it up against the cage. He started to turn off the camera, then thought better of it and instead set it up on the tripod, aiming it towards the cage. When he was happy with the position, he went to dig his book out of his backpack before moving back to the air mattress.

Getting comfortable, he opened his book and began to read, reaching cautiously through the bars once more to pet the wolf. Seeming satisfied, it laid its head back down.

Eren stayed up until close to midnight. By then, he was getting tired since he hadn’t slept much the night before, and he put the book aside and lay down. The wolf looked up again when he stopped petting him but seemed okay with it this time because it was obvious Eren was about to sleep.

“You’re not gonna eat my face while I’m sleeping, right?”

The wolf just stared at him and he laughed a little. He felt a lot more at ease, now. He felt safe, and protected. The wolf wasn’t going to hurt him, and while he knew he was taking a risk, he really didn’t think there was anything to worry about. So he closed his eyes and pulled the blanket up higher, getting comfortable and within minutes, he was asleep.

* * *

Eren woke up the following morning much more violently than the day before. Levi had screamed profanities and then had promptly lifted Eren straight off the air mattress by the front of his shirt so he could shout at him.

The only upside was that Eren was taller than him so he wasn’t dangling off the ground, which he was sure was what Levi had been intending. They were fighting for close to fifteen minutes, most of that involving Levi yelling at Eren about being stupid and reckless and irresponsible. He added other choice words in there too, but Eren had stopped listening halfway through.

When Levi finally calmed down enough to get clothes on and go upstairs to make breakfast, Eren brought up the camera and Levi watched it while he flipped pancakes. The brunet felt ready to die at the random “cum” outburst, but Levi didn’t comment on it and they ate their breakfast in silence.

Since he didn’t have to work that day, Reiner being on shift, Eren hung out with Levi while the other ran errands, mostly because he had no other plans. Everyone else was at work—barring Jean, who wasn’t returning his calls—and Annie still hadn’t responded to his last text from two days ago. Being with Levi beat doing nothing.

Levi dropped Eren off at home around five, the brunet going inside so he could shower and have dinner with his family. Though he hadn’t necessarily been told he could return that night after the anger from that morning, Eren assumed he was still invited and called goodbye to his family around seven. He walked to Levi’s house again and when he entered, Levi was already in the cage.

He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t send him away, either. They chatted a bit more about random things, and Levi brought up his comments from the video the night before about saliva and _other_  bodily fluids. Eren was positive Levi was trying to embarrass him into leaving, but he didn’t succeed. He just sat there while Levi explained that he wasn’t sure how the infection worked but suspected it was something about the changes that occurred in their bodies during the shift. If it wasn’t, anyone he kissed would be infected, which Eren hadn’t really thought about.

He supposed he’d always just assumed it had to do with breaking skin. Saliva and blood, but Levi insisted it wasn’t that simple. As far as he knew, nobody had ever been infected by a wolf in human form, so they’d long ago come to terms with the fact that they could live normal lives, for the most part. He wasn’t sure about the partial shift, but Erwin was apparently looking into that with some sources.

Eren actually found it kind of cool that they had some form of network, where the wolves all spoke to one another and figured things out. Levi insisted it was a pain in the ass, but did admit he was going to send some of the footage from the last two nights to Erwin. Eren and Levi’s relationship really was an anomaly, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to look into it more.

When the change came, Eren went upstairs again. He returned downstairs to the wolf and, as per Levi’s earlier request, he set up the camera in the corner on the tripod, angling it accordingly, then let it run. When he returned to the air mattress, which he’d kicked closer to the cage again, Eren felt a little braver today and he tried petting the wolf’s head. It didn’t seem to mind it, and he felt like after the night before, the wolf actually kind of liked it but was trying not to let it show. So Eren pet the wolf while he read again, and when he got tired, he fell asleep beside the cage.

Levi woke him up more normally the next day. It was obvious he was pissed off, but he seemed to understand that the wolf didn’t want to hurt him, so he’d managed to reign it in, for the most part.

Eren frowned when Levi rubbed at his face and reached out to pull his hand away, frowning.

“What?” Levi asked.

“Your nose is burned. Like... it looks like the wolf stuck his face into the bars.”

Levi tensed instantly, face twisting in anger. “It probably tried to eat you!”

“No, I’m pretty sure that’d have woken me up.”

“Take off your shirt!”

And then Levi was stripping him, making sure he wasn’t bitten or scratched anywhere. He wasn’t, though he didn’t like being mostly naked while Levi was _completely_  naked because it was doing uncomfortable things to his nether regions and he didn’t have very much covering that revelation up.

When Levi told him he could put his clothes back on and went to grab his own, Eren pulled his jeans on and when he reached for his shirt, he frowned, seeing holes in the back of the shirt. He knew they hadn’t been there before and when he lay the shirt flat on the ground, he realized what they were.

“Hey Levi?” he called.

The other’s footsteps padded over and he looked down at what Eren was motioning. It looked like the wolf had bitten at his shirt, but Eren’s back was completely smooth and unharmed. Levi said so himself after having another small heart attack and checking him over _twice_.

That was when they both remembered the camera and Levi raced across the room to it, turning the recording off and starting from the beginning of the night. Eren joined him once his shirt was on and they both watched while he fast forwarded.

Halfway through the night, Levi hit the play button because something had changed. Both Eren and the wolf were sleeping, it was obvious even in the video. Suddenly, the wolf’s head jerked up and it stood, growling low in its throat. Moments later, Eren slowly sat up, pushing the covers off himself. He started to get off the air mattress but the wolf let out a short howl and then pushed its muzzle through the bars. Teeth closed around Eren’s shirt and tugged, pulling Eren backwards.

He didn’t resist, which was normal because Eren didn’t usually resist, he just argued. The wolf pulled back enough that its muzzle wasn’t against the bars anymore, shirt still between its teeth. Eren just sat there, on the air mattress, half of his shirt inside the cage, being held by the wolf.

They both watched as the seconds ticked by, the wolf growling and tugging every time Eren started to shift forward, as if to get up. After about five minutes, the growling stopped and the wolf relaxed. Moments later, Eren let out a snore and then fell sideways on the air mattress. The wolf released his shirt and lay back down while Eren grunted in his sleep and yanked at the covers, letting out another snore.

“Is that... Is that what I look like?” Eren asked quietly. “When I sleepwalk, I mean?”

“I’m more interested in the fact that the wolf stopped you,” Levi said, frowning slightly. “The wolf and I share the exact same sentiments towards you.” They’d already known that, given the protectiveness, but this seemed different. This seemed more... obvious. Like the wolf knew more than Levi did. It had known before Eren had even sat up that something was wrong and had immediately acted to make sure he wouldn’t end up leaving the basement. It had burned itself, injured itself, to keep Eren where he was.

“Do me a favour,” Levi said, watching the two on the screen go back to sleep.

“Sure.”

“When I change, if you’re not working, you need to come over. Considering the wolf doesn’t want you going where you’re trying to get, I feel like there’s a really good reason. I don’t want you sleeping alone. Ever.”

“Okay,” Eren said quietly.

Levi’s eyes narrowed at the video, his thoughts evidently on wishing he could ask the wolf what the fuck was going on. Eren wished he could, too. He’d really like some answers.

Just what the hell _was_  Eren to him? And what the fuck was after him?

* * *

Eren was in the process of putting a shirt on after having exited the shower when the doorbell rang. His hair was still a mess, and his pants weren’t done up but he yelled that he was coming through the house and quickly hurried down the stairs, zipping up his jeans and rushing to the door.

When he pulled it open, his face was immediately grabbed between two hands and his head was wrenched every which way.

“Oh, is this him? Is it, is it?! He’s so tiny and cute! I want to squish him!”

Eren found himself being crushed against someone’s chest, and it took his brain a few seconds to figure out what the hell was happening. Even when those seconds passed, he still wasn’t entirely sure he knew what was going on.

“Oh, he smells really good! And he smells a lot like Levi, too. Like, underneath the shampoo and the soap. That’s to be expected, I mean, considering how much Levi’s been—”

“Hanji!”

 _Oh good, context,_ Eren thought, relieved. Then again, the other voice belonged to Erwin, and he was still a little uncomfortable around him considering the whole trying to eat him thing.

Eren was finally released and he stumbled back a step, catching his balance on the railing and clutching at his chest with one hand, coughing slightly. He looked up and saw the same person who’d been with Erwin the day Levi had first arrived. They were grinning at him broadly, eyes watching him curiously behind their glasses.

He was annoyed that he felt ready to wet himself while staring into their eyes, but it wasn’t as bad as it usually was. He figured it took a little while for the effects to wear off, and that every time he met a new Werewolf, he would have to get used to the fact that it would scare him for a period.

It was really hard not to stare at the scars on their face, especially since they were so close, but he did his best, managing to shift his gaze from the new wolf to Erwin and nodding in greeting.

“Didn’t know you were in town,” he commented.

“Your truck is fixed so I figured I’d bring it by for you.” Erwin thumbed over his shoulder.

“No way, really?!” Eren grinned and shifted past Hanji, rushing out of the house and down the porch steps, grinning at his truck. It looked brand new, as if the events of the previous month had never even happened. He knew he would probably still freak out every now and then when he was in it, but hopefully the fear would begin to fade with time.

“This is awesome, thanks Erwin!” He turned back to the older man and found Hanji right in his face again. “Uh, hi?”

“Hello Eren,” they said, their voice positively evil-sounding. “How are you?”

“Uh... fine?” He was extremely concerned with the looks he was getting and he noticed Erwin sigh and cover his eyes with one hand, clearly exasperated.

“Hanji, I told you, it only works with Levi. Don’t scare him.”

“I’m not scaring him, I’m just making sure I do a thorough investigation.” Hanji leaned even closer, making Eren take a step back. “Tell me, Eren, how often do you shit?”

“I—what?” the brunet demanded, brain stuttering to a halt.

“What about your diet? Do you eat anything weird? Pig’s feet? Bull scrotum? Chocolate covered roaches?”

“What? No!” Eren felt his gorge rise. “What is wrong with you?!”

“Please forgive Hanji,” Erwin said, coming up behind them and pulling them back slightly by the shirt. “They’re just interested in why Levi seems to be all right with you.”

“I guess he sent you the videos, then?”

Erwin frowned. “What videos?”

Eren figured he’d explain, but not outside, so he invited the two of them into his house, making them both some coffee and giving them a brief rundown of Levi’s last change. Hanji looked like they had stars in their eyes the entire time Eren was speaking, continuously reaching out to touch his face like they were fascinated by it, but Erwin looked more thoughtful, rubbing at his mouth and asking questions about the wolf. Eren answered them as best he could, but kept insisting it would be easier if they all just went to see Levi.

Erwin seemed hesitant to do so, though didn’t explain why. It wasn’t until almost a half hour later when Erwin stiffened and Eren heard a car pull up that he realized what the problem was.

Levi was in his house before Eren had even stood, the older man storming through the house and immediately moving in front of Eren, pointing at Hanji while yelling at Erwin.

“What are _they_  doing here?!”

“Levi!” Hanji jumped up and wrapped their arms around the man in question, trying to kiss his cheek. Levi managed to shove one hand between their faces to stop them from succeeding. “It’s been so long! I missed you!”

“Erwin, I told you not to tell them!” Levi snapped.

“When a wolf is locked in a storage room with a human and doesn’t kill them, word gets around,” Erwin insisted, sighing and crossing his arms. “You asked me to talk to the other pack leaders, and you know wolves talk.”

“Why did you bring them here?!”

“I needed a ride home. I drove Eren’s truck out here, so obviously someone would’ve had to drive me back.”

“ _I_ could’ve driven you back!” Levi insisted.

“Hanji wanted to visit you.” He motioned the individual still trying to kiss Levi. “Don’t be like that.”

Levi finally managed to shove Hanji off himself, the other Werewolf falling into a chair. He turned to Eren, inhaling deeply and his eyes widened. Before Eren could ask what was wrong, Levi reached out and cupped his face in his hands, dragging him a step closer and running his hands along his neck and down his arms, then back up to his neck and face.

Seeming satisfied with _whatever_  it was he’d just done, Levi rounded on Hanji and got right in their face, pointing an angry finger at them. “You stay away from Eren, understand? No experiments, no questions, no nothing. You touch him again, I’ll kill you.”

“Oh, you were right, Erwin! He _is_  more territorial than usual.” Hanji was grinning. “I am so intrigued! Have you had any more dreams?”

Eren frowned at this, not understand what it meant, but it obviously meant _something_  to Levi because he turned sharply to Erwin and it looked like he wanted to bite his face off.

He really didn’t want to be around for something like that and when he checked the time, he realized he was going to be late for work. Frieda and his father had done the day shift today, so it was his turn for the night shift. If he didn’t leave now, he was going to be late.

“Well, this was fun, but uh, I need to head to work.” Eren stood, waiting for the others to do the same. “Thanks for the truck, Erwin. And uh, sorry.”

“For what?” the blond man asked, confused.

“You know, making you pay for it.”

“I’m the one who destroyed it, I don’t see why you’re apologizing.”

“Right.”

Levi was still glaring daggers at Erwin when they left the house. Hanji commented on Eren not locking his door, and when he explained that nobody in town ever really did, he felt like he shouldn’t have shared that information because the look on the other’s face made him worried to ever sleep with the window open. Then again, Levi tended to always be in his room or around outside so really, even if Hanji showed up, Levi would probably murder them.

He waved goodbye to the others and got into his truck. Hanji’s car and Levi’s truck followed behind him down the street but when he turned into the lot for the store, the other two vehicles kept going, heading to Levi’s house.

Eren was a little sad he would be missing out on time with Levi tonight, given he’d gotten used to being entertained by him while he worked, but he figured he’d survived long before Levi’s arrival so he could manage one night.

Wandering into the store, he waved hello to Frieda, who was at the till, and moved to the back to find his father. He was in the office, going over some inventory. Eren tried to figure out what day it was so that he was ready for the next one, but his brain wasn’t functioning properly after the conversations he’d just had so he let it pass.

“Hey,” he said, dropping his bag and falling into the other chair. “How’s it going?”

“Good. Really good. How’re you doing?”

“Good. Got my truck back today, finally.”

“That’s great! The guy who hit you come by? I hope he apologized again for what he did.”

“Trust me, he’s really sorry.” Eren rubbed at his shoulder, feeling a tightness. “How’s Frieda doing?”

“Great, actually. I think she’ll be ready for a shift alone soon. We’ve done a few night shifts, and a few day shifts, so I thought tomorrow night I’d let her do a night shift on her own but I’ll stay with her in case she needs me. Don’t forget your mother’s going to see her best friend in Stohess tomorrow night so you’ll have to organize yourself for dinner and breakfast.”

“Right.” Eren rubbed at his face and let out a small sigh. “Reiner’s on shift tomorrow?”

“Mm, with Levi.”

“He’ll be thrilled,” Eren said with a small smile. Grisha said nothing to this, and Eren felt tempted to ask him, again, why he’d hired Reiner if he didn’t trust him alone in the store. Deciding he didn’t want to start another fight, he kept his mouth shut.

Honestly, he figured his dad had done it for him. Reiner was Annie’s friend, and Annie was Eren’s friend. Reiner had needed a job, so his father had been kind enough to give him one, even if he didn’t trust him.

Shrugging the reasons off, Eren changed his shirt and went to the front. He relieved Frieda of her post so that she could go and count down the till and put the deposit away. Eren jumped up onto the back counter and pulled out his phone, opening a new game he’d recently downloaded and beginning to play. He grunted a farewell to his father and Frieda when they left, and then sat there for a good hour before the door opened again.

When it did, he grinned and jumped off the counter. “Hey asshat, where’ve you been?”

“Me? You’re the loser who’s been glued to Levi lately.” Jean moved behind the counter and jumped up onto it, almost sitting on the till since he hadn’t used the back counter like Eren did. “How’re things? Annie still pissed you missed her mom’s deathday party?”

Eren punched him, finding that to be an inappropriate way of referencing the anniversary of Annie’s mother’s death. “I don’t know what to do. She’s really pissed off. I tried texting her, but she ignored me so I figure I should just... give her some space.”

“Yeah, probably for the best. Bitch is probably on her period, anyway.”

He punched him again for that, Jean scowling at him and insisting he stop abusing him. Eren just punched him again for good measure.

“What’s your beef with Annie, anyway? I mean, why does nobody like her?” Eren asked, jumping up onto the back counter and swinging his legs slightly.

“Are you kidding? The bitch sucks!” Jean scowled. “She always acts entitled to you, like you’re only _her_  friend and that everyone else’s plans should be cancelled if she comes along and wants to hang with you. She doesn’t treat anyone but you, Reiner and Bert with any respect, and she’s always badmouthing Mikasa for no reason.”

Eren couldn’t deny that there had always been an immediate dislike between his sister and Annie. The first day they had met, he didn’t remember how old they were, but fairly young. Mikasa had walked over to Annie, stared at her, and immediately proclaimed that she didn’t like her. Things had kind of gone downhill from there and even now, years later when they were all grown up and—mostly—mature, they _still_  hated one another.

“Well, I’ll admit she can get a little territorial,” Eren muttered. “But I think living in the next town makes her... worried, I guess. That I’m gonna forget her.”

“What was her excuse in high school when we literally saw her _every day_?” Jean asked dryly. “You know she punched me in the face once when I asked to be your partner in Biology, right? She was pissed I got to you first and asked me to switch with her. I said no, and she fucking punched me.”

“Really?” Eren didn’t remember this at all. Jean often got into fights at school, as did Eren, so he probably wouldn’t have noticed him injured. It wouldn’t have been any different from any other day. He figured Jean just hadn’t mentioned it because he didn’t want to cause problems between Eren and Annie.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Hm?” Jean asked, grabbing a handful of licorice from the container by the till and stuffing them into his mouth. Eren scowled at him but said nothing, knowing that licorice cost them virtually nothing to replenish.

“Do you think Levi is like that? Territorial and entitled, I mean?”

The chewing stopped abruptly, and he could tell Jean was thinking about something _other_  than Eren’s question. After a few seconds, the chewing resumed, but more slowly, as though Jean was thinking about the best way to word his answer.

“Well,” Jean said slowly, staring at the ceiling. “Yes and no.”

“Meaning?”

“Well, he’s definitely territorial, and he’s always kind of _around_ , but I guess he’s more... okay with sharing? Like, if I’m with you and he comes by, he doesn’t glare at me until I leave the way Annie does. And Levi’s cool to hang out with, I guess.” Jean tossed a piece of licorice in the air and caught it in his mouth. “He’s kind of chill when he’s not trying to make me wet my pants. I wouldn’t say I _like_  him, but I don’t _mind_  Levi. Annie I could do without, but well, she’s your friend so I put up with it.”

“Might not be anymore,” Eren muttered. It was strange, because he felt like he should be sadder but somehow, he just... wasn’t. He missed her, but he wasn’t as sad as he’d thought he’d be at the prospect of losing one of his oldest friends.

He assumed it was because he and Annie had been drifting for a while. Mostly his fault, and he knew it, but she _did_  get mad at him a lot. And for stupid things. Yes, he bailed on outings with her, but always for a legitimate reason. He didn’t plan it on purpose.

Besides, he bailed on everyone, not just her. His other friends seemed fine with it.

“Speak of the devil.”

“Annie?” Eren’s stomach dropped and he whipped around, but when the lights of the car that had just pulled in turned off, he saw it was Levi’s truck. He couldn’t help the small smile threatening and he turned back to Jean. The other was giving him a weird look. “What?”

“You guys are dating, right? Why won’t you just admit it?”

Eren was _very_  conscious of the fact that Levi could hear, and worse still, he heard two other doors slamming which meant Hanji and Erwin were with him.

“We’re not dating,” Eren insisted.

“But you like him, right?”

He could _not_  have this conversation with three fucking Werewolves approaching the door! They could fucking hear everything!

“Can we talk about this some other time?” Eren asked, struggling not to throttle Jean for thinking _now_  was an appropriate time to be asking him this.

“They’re talking outside, he can’t hear us. Come on, just admit it. You like him. You guys spend time together. Why aren’t you dating?”

Why was this happening to him? Hadn’t he suffered enough in life?

Pulling his phone out and hoping that Levi couldn’t magically figure out keystrokes by listening to him text, Eren quickly typed out a message and turned his phone to face Jean. His friend cocked an eyebrow, but read it anyway, shaking his head once he was done.

“You’re such a fucking girl, Jaeger.”

“Piss off, Horseface,” Eren snapped, turning the phone back to himself and deleting the message.

The door opened then, Levi and his two friends walking in. Hanji exclaimed excitedly and disappeared towards the freezers in the back where the ice cream was. Erwin and Levi moved to the till, the latter nodding to Jean.

“Hey,” Jean said. “What’s up?”

“Just buying groceries,” Levi commented.

“Kibble’s in aisle two,” Eren said immediately.

The older man gave him a scathing look, but Eren just grinned, loving making fun of him in front of Jean. Even Erwin half-laughed at the joke before seeming to get himself back under control.

“Erwin, this is my friend Jean. Jean, this is Levi’s friend Erwin.”

“Hey,” Jean nodded. “Welcome to hickville.”

“I rather like it here,” Erwin insisted, looking around the store. “It’s peaceful. If I didn’t have a job that required me to live in the city, I would contemplate moving here.”

The thought made Eren’s stomach twist into knots. The two wolves must’ve noticed because Erwin then proceeded to go on a huge tangent of why he would never be able to move there and how he loved his apartment in the city until it was obvious that Eren was starting to calm down.

It wasn’t that he disliked Erwin, he just didn’t know that he would be able to handle being around him during another full moon.

“Levi! Levi!” Hanji appeared, hanging all over said man. “They have Oreo Blaster ice cream here! Nobody carries that anymore in Trost! I love this place! Can I be your roommate?”

“No.”

“But we’d be the best of roommates! We could stay up at night, talk about Eren, braid each other’s hair—”

Levi shoved his hand in Hanji’s face and pushed them away hard. They didn’t seem to mind, giggling and running back to the freezer, presumably to buy the ice cream they were so excited about.

“Okay,” Jean said. “Well, it’s late so I should head out.”

Eren gave him a clear, “Don’t leave me here alone with these psychos!” look but Jean just patted his shoulder, wished him well, and promptly left the store. Eren watched him climb into his truck and drive away, wishing he could go with him. Anything to escape the embarrassment he knew was coming.

“So,” Erwin said, sounding much too chipper. Eren was scared to look at him, but he slowly turned to do so anyway. “We shouldn’t have told you about the super-hearing. You two were having an interesting conversation when we showed up.”

“No we weren’t,” Eren snapped, feeling the back of his neck burning.

Before Erwin could say anything else, Hanji appeared with a tub of ice cream, eyes wide and excited. “Do you have a spoon?”

“Uh, we sell cutlery in aisle nine.”

Hanji dropped the ice cream, sprinted across the store and came back with a six pack of spoons. Eren rang them through and hadn’t even counted out change before Hanji had pulled open the top of the tub, dug a spoon into the ice cream and shovelled it into their mouth with a loud groan.

“We watched the videos,” Erwin informed Eren, as if explaining why they were all there. “Interesting stuff. The wolf seems completely calm around you.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of nice, actually,” Eren said, closing the till and leaning back against the back counter. “Like having a dog.”

Hanji snickered at this but Levi didn’t look as amused. Eren winced and rubbed the back of his head.

“Can I ask how the wolf was the first time?” Erwin asked. “In the storage room, I mean. Did Levi change and then it just stared at you like in the videos?”

“Actually, no.” Eren frowned. “It turned to look at me, and then growled and stalked forward. It didn’t attack me or anything, but it was definitely unhappy with seeing me. I was sitting on the floor with my back to the wall and it came right up to my face, then it kind of hovered there for a few seconds and then it was fine. It crawled over me so it could get comfortable and passed out with its upper body in my lap.”

“Hm.” Erwin looked thoughtful. “It’s as if the first time it realized something was different about Eren, but wasn’t sure what that was yet. When it finally got close enough to him, it must’ve clued in to whatever it was looking for and then now it just always remembers who Eren is when it sees him.”

“I can’t believe you pet Levi,” Hanji snickered into their ice cream. Levi kicked them fairly violently in the knee, almost making them fall over.

“Whatever the wolf and Levi are trying to protect you from, it seems to be fairly malevolent.” Erwin was still frowning, looking thoughtful. “We saw the way it injured itself to keep you in bed. Something must be hardcoded inside Levi to make sure whatever is after you doesn’t get you.”

“But why?” Eren demanded.

“That is a very good question,” Erwin said, eying him with interest.

Eren was really worried he was going to turn into some weird wolf experiment. He really didn’t want to spend any more time with Werewolves.


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEYVVI!!!!! -throws confetti-  
> Hopefully this is posted correctly on March 7th your time (damn time difference -shakes fist- THOUGH my calendar was wrong and said seventh but it is apparently the 8th so I SORRY but at least you're surprised, right??? lol /shot)  
> I wanted to get the other piece done for your birthday, but because of my studying I didn't end up finishing it :( So I'll save it for later :)  
> EVERYONE GO SHOWER KEYVVI WITH LOVE BECAUSE SHE IS AMAZING AND DESERVES IT! She's been spamming me with art for this fic that I don't deserve, and it's amazing, so go throw love at her http://keyvvidoodle.tumblr.com/ & http://keyvvi.tumblr.com/
> 
> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Avengers: Age of Ultron (c) Marvel  
> Easy A (c) Screen Gems  
> V for Vendetta (c) Warner Brothers  
> Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (c) Square Enix

“What the hell are you doing?! Get off him! Let him go!”

Eren felt like his heart had just beat itself right out of his chest and when he blinked, he didn’t understand where he was.

“You don’t understand, just wait!”

Someone was holding his arm, but someone else had just grabbed his other one, grip hard and tugging painfully.

Where was he? He couldn’t figure out what was going on.

“Get away from him! I’m calling the cops!”

“Wait! You don’t understand! Just _listen_!”

“Eren! Eren, are you okay? Eren! What did you do to him?! Is he drugged?! Did you fucking _drug_  him?!”

“Will you just shut up and let me speak?!”

Eren didn’t have time for this. He had to... what? He had to do something. Or go somewhere? He couldn’t remember. His head felt fuzzy. He brought both hands up to his face, rubbing hard at his eyes. He was forgetting something, and the people yelling weren’t helping.

One of them suddenly cut off, and he realized the hands were gone. Good. He could—what? Go somewhere. He had to go somewhere. Yes, that was what he was doing. He had to find the voice.

Eren took a step, something biting painfully into his foot, but he ignored it and took another step.

“Eren, stop! Shit! Mikasa, I can’t shut you up _and_  stop Eren at the same time! Help me get him back in the house!”

Hands were on him once more, turning him around. He resisted for only a second.

“No. I have to go there,” he insisted.

“Eren!”

“Don’t shake him!”

“He’s _my_  brother! Get away from him!”

People were pulling him again. He hesitated only for a moment before letting them lead him where they wanted him. It was away from the voice, in the wrong direction, but he couldn’t figure out how to fight them off so he didn’t. One of them was gripping his upper arm, the other was holding the opposite wrist.

“Stairs. Eren, one foot up.”

He looked down and saw his bare feet at the foot of the porch steps. He was outside. Of course he was, he’d been leaving to find the voice. But now he had to go back inside. He didn’t want to, but he couldn’t help it.

He felt so safe. Safer than he’d ever felt before. He felt like someone had just wrapped him in a warm blanket and the two voices coaxing him back up the stairs made him feel invincible. Like nothing could ever hurt him again.

Eren wanted to find the voice. He wanted to go to it. But he couldn’t bring himself to if it meant leaving this warmth. This sense of security. It was too addicting.

So he lifted his foot and began moving up the porch steps.

“Why is he acting like this? What did you do?” One of the voices asked angrily.

“I didn’t _do_  anything. You woke him up, so now he’s confused!”

“What do you mean I woke him up?!”

“He was sleepwalking. Let’s just—we have to get him back in the house.”

He stumbled slightly on the last step but then was on solid ground again. He was pulled forward into the house and he heard the door shut behind him.

“Come on, Eren. This way.”

 _This way,_ the voice had insisted. Eren began to turn, but the hand on his wrist tugged lightly once more.

“No, that’s the wrong way, we’re going back this way. Come on. Up the stairs, let’s go.”

“What is going on?”

“Shut up and just help me.”

Eren stopped, standing on one of the steps leading up. He didn’t want them fighting. He didn’t like this. The good feeling was leaving. He should get back to finding the voice.

With a curse, one of the people with him shifted and then Eren felt his feet leave the ground.

“What are you doing?!”

“You got a better idea? Don’t worry, I’ve done this before. Just follow me and shut up.”

He felt his body jarring for a few seconds and then he was falling. His back hit something soft and it took his muddled brain many seconds to figure out where he was. Bed. He was in bed again.

“Eren.” A hand on his cheek. He closed his eyes, inhaling. He knew this scent.

Reaching up, he wrapped his arms around the figure and pulled them down. They let out a shout and half fell on top of him.

“You smell good,” he mumbled, holding the other tighter.

“Get off my brother!”

“I’m trying, he won’t let me go!”

Eren felt hands tugging at his wrists, but his consciousness was drifting and he passed back out.

He had a really weird dream after that. He knew it was a dream because he was pretty sure he couldn’t fly. He was hovering above the forest, looking down in a clearing. He could see a wolf, black like the night, and small. It was fighting with a black shadow-like creature. The creature swiped at the wolf, but it dodged the blow and leapt at the shadow.

An inhuman howl of rage left it when teeth sank into the blackness. An arm-shaped shadow swung hard and the wolf went flying, hitting a tree and letting out a pained yelp. It turned back into Levi when it hit the ground, the man dazed and struggling to stand.

The shadow glided closer, and even from where he was, Eren could sense the murderous intent oozing off it. It was going to kill Levi.

Holy shit, it was going to _kill_  Levi!

“Levi! Get up!” Eren reached out, but he was still just hovering in the air. He wasn’t getting any closer, and Levi was still struggling to stand. “Get up! Get _up_!” he shouted desperately. “Levi!”

“Eren!”

“Levi get up!”

“Eren!” He felt someone give him a hard shake and his eyes snapped open.

Levi was standing over him, hands gripping his shoulders tightly enough to bruise. Sunlight was streaming in through the window and he could hear cars slowly passing the house outside, meaning it was past eight, at least.

“What happened?!” Mikasa burst into the room and she ran to the bed, shoving Levi aside rather violently before sitting down beside Eren. “Eren, are you okay? What happened? Are you awake?”

“I’m fine,” he insisted, brushing her hands away and sitting up, trying to ignore how embarrassed he felt. He could only assume that meant what he remembered from the night before hadn’t been a dream. He’d been outside again and Levi and Mikasa had been fighting.

He turned to look at Levi, who was standing at the foot of the bed, jaw clenched and hands curled into fists. He looked worried. Really worried.

“It happened again, didn’t it?” he asked him.

Mikasa looked back and forth between them and when Levi nodded, she turned back to Eren.

“How long has this been going on? Eren, why didn’t you _tell_  someone?” She smacked him and he winced, rubbing at his arm. “You should’ve said something! To me, to dad! Why didn’t you mention it?!”

Eren cast a glance at Levi, a silent question. The almost imperceptible shake of his head gave Eren his answer and he looked down at his blanket.

“It’s not a big deal—”

“Not a big deal?! Eren, I thought Levi was trying to kidnap you! You were at the bottom of the driveway heading down the street!”

“Levi’s been helping me,” he muttered, throwing his covers off himself and climbing out of bed on the opposite side Mikasa was sitting on. “I’ve got it under control, it’s fine.”

“Eren, it’s _not_  fine!” she insisted, standing and moving around to the base of the bed so she could stop him when he tried to head for the bathroom. “You could’ve gotten hurt! How long has this been going on?”

“I don’t know, couple of months?”

“Months?!” she shouted. Eren winced at the volume and just moved past her so he could go to the bathroom, shutting the door behind himself.

He realized that was a cruel thing to do, because now all he heard was Mikasa chewing Levi out for not having told anyone, and then demanding to know how long he’d known, and what he was doing to help him.

Eren could hear Levi trying to calm her down, and he moved away from the door, relieving himself and then washing his hands. He brushed his teeth, then splashed water on his face, trying to wake himself up. His nightmare was still hovering in the forefront of his mind and it was making the hairs on his arms rise.

Grabbing a towel, he dried off his face, taking a breath and then looked up at himself in the mirror. He looked like shit, but figured that was par for the course these days. It wasn’t like he’d been getting much sleep.

He wondered if the shadow in his dream was the evil that was hunting him. He also wondered if his dream was telling him Levi wouldn’t be able to protect him. But that was stupid, it was just a dream.

Tossing the towel back on the counter, Eren paused when his eyes caught sight of the smudge on his wrist. It had been there since that first day he’d noticed it, and no amount of scrubbing with soap seemed to be getting it off. He’d thought that it could potentially be a bruise for a while, but if it had been, it would’ve healed by now, so he knew it wasn’t. It didn’t really explain _what_  it was, though, so he did what he always did when he had a problem he couldn’t solve.

He ignored it.

Turning back to the door, Eren exited his bathroom and saw Mikasa was gone. Levi stood, having been sitting in his desk chair.

“Where’s Mikasa?”

“She went to make breakfast.” Levi was eying him. “Are you okay?”

“No,” Eren admitted, moving closer. He hesitated briefly. “Can I—can I do something?”

Levi looked uncertain, but he nodded anyway. Eren reached out one hand slowly, then sucked it up, shifted forward and hugged Levi. It was brief hug, mostly just him reassuring himself that Levi was okay, but it felt nice to hold him.

He’d pulled away before Levi could decide whether to hug him back or not and cleared his throat, turning to his door. “Come on, let’s head down.”

Eren hadn’t even reached it before Levi’s hand closed around his wrist.

“Eren, what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were screaming my name when I woke you up. And the hug just now, and...” Levi hesitated, then said, “and you’re shaking.”

Was he? He lifted one hand up and watched it tremble. That annoyed him and he clenched his hand into a fist to make it stop. He’d been doing a lot of shaking and screaming lately.

“It’s nothing,” he insisted. “Come on, let’s head down.”

Levi didn’t push, and Eren appreciated that. The other just let his arm go, gripped the back of his neck once tightly, and followed behind him while he headed downstairs. Mikasa was in the kitchen making waffles.

Well, “making” was a loose term since she was really just putting Eggos in the toaster. She turned when they entered and Eren sat down at the table. Levi didn’t. He and Mikasa just had a mini stare-off until the toaster popped and she turned to pull the waffles out.

“I think this is a good thing,” Levi said, turning to Eren. “That she knows, now. Means you’ll have two people looking out for you.”

“I still don’t understand why you won’t tell me what happened,” Mikasa insisted angrily, moving to the table and slamming a plate of waffles down in front of Eren. He jumped, but mumbled a thanks anyway, grabbing for the syrup so he could start.

“It’s complicated,” Levi insisted. “But like I told you last night. Repeatedly. I am not trying to hurt Eren.”

“Then why were you letting him leave?” she demanded angrily.

“I wasn’t,” he snapped defensively. “Whenever Eren sleepwalks, on occasion I’ll let him go a little further to see if I can get any information out of him. He’s always telling me he needs to _go_  somewhere, to follow a voice, find someone. I’m just trying to figure out what he’s looking for so I can help him stop sleepwalking.”

Eren didn’t like that they were talking about him as if he weren’t there, but he just let the two of them argue with one another while he ate his Eggos. They were crispy, just the way he liked them, and he let his eyes shift back and forth between Levi and Mikasa while he chewed.

They were getting into a very heated argument, and Eren almost wondered if maybe Mikasa hated Levi the same way she hated Annie. Then again, she didn’t _look_  like she hated him, she just seemed angry that she hadn’t been told anything.

And Levi didn’t seem to have a problem with Mikasa, either. If anything, it looked like he was relieved someone else was on his side to help him watch Eren, but he didn’t want to tell her _why_  this wasn’t going to get resolved by itself. Something was obviously happening that was outside the normal conventions of sleepwalking, so no matter what they told her, it wouldn’t be enough.

“Look,” Levi insisted when she continued to argue, “it doesn’t matter. It happened. It’s done. Right now, Eren is sleepwalking a _lot_ , and I need to make sure he doesn’t end up outside hurting himself. So are you going to help with that, or are you just going to be angry about being left in the dark?”

Mikasa looked like she wanted to snap at him but she just crossed her arms, narrowed her eyes and nodded.

“Good.” Levi rubbed at his face then checked the time on the stove. “I have to get back, I have a meeting with my publisher at five in Trost.” He looked at Eren. “You gonna be okay?”

“I’m working tonight,” he informed him.

“I’ll drop by when I get back.”

“You need to sleep too, Levi,” he insisted.

“I’m fine. I’ll sleep when this ends.”

Eren’s chewing slowed and his brain moved back to thoughts of Levi and the shadow fighting, the wolf slamming against the tree, the darkness closing in on him.

His stomach turned over and he set his fork down.

He wasn’t very hungry anymore.

* * *

Erwin stood in front of his Ipod, scrolling down his playlist while the music played through the base speakers, the smooth sound of jazz floating through his apartment. He switched songs to something a little more upbeat then took a sip of the glass of scotch he was holding, turning to head back to his computer. He set the drink down on a coaster so it wouldn’t ruin his marble countertop and began typing once more.

He had four different tabs open, and he was fairly certain he was getting closer. He knew this was something he’d always promised not to do, but given the circumstances, it was a promise he was going to have to break. He was sure it would be forgiven.

Checking his work Skype for any messages while he waited for a page to load, he moved back to his personal Skype and responded to one of the other pack leaders about Eren and Levi. All the wolves he knew were incredibly interested in this human who seemed to be able to cohabit with a wolf.

Erwin repeatedly tried to explain that it was just with Levi, but it didn’t stop the other wolves from being interested and wanting to meet Eren. He knew Levi would never let that happen, so he made it explicitly clear to them all that it was impossible. He’d even sent a few of the more persistent ones the video of him trying to break through the cage to eat Eren just to prove it really _was_  just Levi. Some of them understood, but were still curious. Others insisted it was Erwin’s fault and that they would be different.

He could understand, if he was honest. When Levi had come home and told him about being locked in the storage room with Eren, and the other man was completely fine, Erwin had been so hopeful. He’d thought that, if it was possible for Levi to get over his bloodlust as a wolf, maybe it was possible for the rest of them. One night with Eren had proven that wasn’t the case. Levi and Eren’s relationship was an anomaly, a one-time thing. It didn’t work with others, and Erwin hated that.

He, like Levi, had also lost many loved ones due to his condition. It was why he had resigned himself to being either single, or with another wolf. He wasn’t really interested in being with another wolf, so he’d remained single for a number of years.

After Isabelle, he’d actually thought Levi would follow suit. He’d seen how destroyed he had been, especially when that had been followed up by Eld. He’d been worried about him, and when Levi had moved, he’d been even _more_  worried.

For him to have found Eren... he was happy. Relieved, even. Regardless of what weird force was making Levi protective of him, Erwin knew that Levi cared for Eren in his own right. And he was obviously attracted to him, so knowing that Eren would survive if Levi ever turned in front of him was probably a huge relief to him. And yet, he did nothing.

He wished Eren hadn’t realized it was Levi outside the store when he and Hanji had visited. Jean had asked him that question, about being attracted to Levi, and Erwin had so hoped they would get an answer. Maybe it would help kick Levi off his ass and have him actually _do_  something. He obviously wanted to move forward with Eren, even an idiot like Hanji could see that, but he was hesitating.

Whether because of his protective feelings or because he was afraid, Erwin didn’t know, but he was glad Levi had Eren. He was glad that he seemed happy. It was all he’d ever really wanted for him, especially after everything he’d been through.

He sighed and reached for his glass, taking another small sip when his computer dinged, alerting him of a new email. He set the glass down and opened his inbox, almost choking at who he saw had responded. He clicked on the email, tapping his fingers impatiently against the computer while it opened.

Once it took over his screen, he read it quickly, heart pounding, and slowly, a smile crept onto his face. He covered his mouth with one hand, let out a laugh and shook his head, reaching for his phone. He started to dial Levi, then paused, eyes moving back to the computer screen.

No, this was something to discuss in person. He didn’t want to do this over the phone. He’d been looking into this for months, and behind his back. He was sure it would be a better conversation to have in person.

Pushing his phone back into his pocket, he re-read the email with a smile on his face, then responded to the sender, thanking them profusely for the information.

* * *

Eren’s hands tightened around the steering wheel, eyes locked on the front door and narrowing slightly, as if it had somehow offended him. He knew his presence hadn’t gone unnoticed, but he still wasn’t ready to get out of the car.

It had been a few weeks since the last change, and since then he and Levi hadn’t really done much more than talk about Levi being a Werewolf, Eren sleepwalking, whatever evil entity was after Eren, and work. They spent so much time together, and yet they seemed to do anything _but_  spend time together. He hated it. That wasn’t what he wanted with Levi, he wanted...

Well, actually, he didn’t know _what_  he wanted, and he didn’t want to think about it, either, so he just let the thought trail off. He still hadn’t heard from Annie and, to be frank, if she was going to be a bitch about him spending too much time with Levi, well he was going to go out of his way to do it now. He didn’t feel like he was being unfair, he felt like _she_  was the one being unfair!

Letting out another breath, he stiffened when the front door of the house opened and Levi stepped out onto his porch, staring at him through the windshield.

“You’re killing the planet, turn that thing off.”

Eren hesitated, then reached down and turned off the engine. Well, he’d had his decision made for him, so now it was just a matter of... getting out of the car.

If he could manage that.

Levi was still staring at him, giving him a “what the fuck are you doing?” look. Eren’s hands tightened around the steering wheel and he let out a breath.

“Are you free right now?” he asked in a quiet voice, almost as if he was hoping Levi wouldn’t hear it since he was still in the car with the windows shut and speaking softly.

No dice.

“I am, why?” Levi had to speak more loudly since Eren didn’t share his sense of hearing.

Letting out a slow breath, Eren shifted his hands to grab at the plastic bag sitting on the passenger seat then kicked open his door. He jumped out of the truck, shutting it behind himself and then wandered over to join Levi on the porch, the other still just staring at him.

“I was thinking... I don’t know, we never really _hang out_. Like, in the normal sense. Like normal people. So I thought maybe we could watch a movie or something,” he mumbled, hand tightening around the plastic bag he held.

He saw Levi’s eyes lower to the bag and Eren wondered if maybe he didn’t like chips. Then he remembered Levi had come in to buy them once, so he obviously did. He probably just didn’t understand what was going on.

“You want to hang out?” Levi asked slowly, as if he’d misheard.

“Yeah.”

“With me?”

“Yeah.”

“Alone?”

“Yeah.”

Levi stared at him. “Why?”

 _Okay, so he doesn’t want to hang out. Bad idea. Abort. Abort!_  Eren felt a little disappointed but he propped his voice up when he answered, not wanting to make things more uncomfortable than they were.

“I just thought it would be nice for a change. To just hang out, you and me, without other people around and not—talk about wolves or sleepwalking or whatever. But, you know, it’s fine, I caught you at a bad time. I should’ve called or something.” He started walking backwards. “Sorry, that was my bad. Um, I’ll just—”

When he turned to leave, Levi’s hand closed around his wrist.

“I didn’t say no, I just don’t understand why you’d want to hang out with me.” Levi tugged gently, making Eren move back to where he’d been standing, almost right in front of Levi.

“Oh. Okay, well, I brought uh,” Eren looked into the bag, not remembering and wishing Levi would let go of his wrist. His hand was warm and it was making his skin tingle. “I brought _Avengers: Age of Ultron_ , and _Easy A_ , and _V for Vendetta_.” He hesitated. “I also brought _Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children_. You know, just in case you were into that.”

“Anime, huh?” Levi let out a small puff of laughter. “Not really something I’ve looked into, but I’ll give it a try.”

He finally released Eren and motioned into the house. The brunet entered, moving into the living room and setting the bag down on the coffee table. He pulled out two types of chips—Ruffles All Dressed and Nacho Cheese Doritos—some mild salsa dip and a pack of Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies. Then he pulled out all the movies and laid them out so that Levi could choose which one he wanted first.

“No drinks? For shame,” the older man teased moving out of the room and down the corridor to the kitchen. “You want a beer? I have Corona.”

“Sure.”

Eren got the television turned on and the Blu Ray player going while Levi was gone. The other returned with two cans of Coke and a six pack of Corona. One of them was already missing, and Levi grabbed another one out of the pack, popping the top off and holding it out to Eren.

“You—really?” Eren asked, staring at the cap where it lay on the coffee table. “Do you even own a bottle opener?”

“No.” Levi was smirking, still holding the beer out.

“You sir, are terrifying,” Eren informed him, but he took the bottle with a nod of thanks and motioned the movies.

Levi went for the anime right away, popping it into the machine and then falling down on the couch beside Eren. He opened his own bottle of beer, leaving only three left in the pack and took a sip. When he leaned back, he threw one arm across the back of the couch. Eren felt his fingers brush his neck and let out a slow breath, taking another huge sip of his beer.

He didn’t really know what their relationship was. They weren’t dating, of that, he was certain. But they were... kind of more than friends, weren’t they? He couldn’t help but wonder if Levi was only around him because of his need to protect him. Once the danger in his life was gone, would Levi follow? Or was Levi _using_  that as an excuse to _be_  around him so much? After all, hadn’t he been watching out for Eren long before the brunet even knew about it? He’d done that from a distance before, so why change now unless it was because he _wanted_  to be close to him?

Eren knew he’d found Levi attractive before they’d become close. And when they’d started being kind of friendly before he’d found out about him being a Werewolf, he’d kind of acknowledged that he had a bit of a crush on him, as preschool as that sounded. But now, having the shared secret, being with him all the time, knowing that even as a wolf Levi didn’t want to hurt him...

He wanted something else with Levi. He wanted things to progress, but he didn’t know how to ask for that, or how to make it happen. He didn’t know what he should do.

He felt Levi’s fingers moving behind his neck, as if playing with the end of his hair. It was different from his usual touches, it felt more intimate somehow. He didn’t want to look at him, so he instead just took another sip of his beer, resting it on his knee. He could feel his heart pounding just a little faster than usual in his chest, and he wondered if Levi’s acute hearing could pick that up. He wondered if he smelled different right now, because he was nervous, because he was thinking things he didn’t usually think about.

Eren wanted to shift closer. Could he do that without making it obvious it was what he was doing? Maybe if he just pretended he was getting comfortable, he could move a fraction closer to Levi.

He was gearing up to do just that, getting ready to shift when Levi suddenly leaned forward and he lost his nerve. The other had grabbed the bag of Ruffles and tossed it to Eren.

“Open that, would you?”

Eren almost snapped for him to open it himself, but then realized the hand behind his neck would disappear, and it might not come back. So he just sucked it up and put his beer between his knees, opening the bag and dropping it onto Levi’s lap.

The other dug his hand into the bag and began eating, his gaze locked on the television screen. Eren looked down into his lap, playing with the label of his Corona. Levi was acting as if nothing was different, which he supposed made sense. And it wasn’t a bad thing, really, for them to stay as they were. It just wasn’t what he wanted. Maybe. He still wasn’t sure, his brain was pretty messed up.

He felt like it was messed up because of Levi though. Having him close made it hard to think. All he kept feeling was a weird sense of security and warmth in his chest. He loved that feeling, it made him feel like his entire life wasn’t a complete waste of space. Like, if nothing else, one person was happy he was alive.

Not to say he didn’t think his friends and family were happy he was alive, but it just felt _different_  with Levi. Everything always felt different with Levi.

“Eren?”

He turned to look at him, figuring he’d noticed Eren wasn’t watching the movie. Levi was staring at him intently, but not with the same intensity that made him nervous or scared. It was a different intensity, like he wanted something, but didn’t know how to say it. Like he was silently asking Eren a question that he desperately needed answered. And Eren would answer it, he would. He would tell Levi anything he wanted to hear if only he knew what he was asking.

Levi leaned forward, and for a second Eren actually thought he was going to kiss him. His heart almost beat itself out of his chest, but Levi hadn’t gotten halfway to closing the distance when he froze, the phone ringing.

Eren almost grabbed his face and yelled, “Don’t you dare!” but he managed to refrain.

Turning with an angry scowl on his face, Levi stared across the front entrance at the hall table where the phone was. He seemed to have an internal debate with himself and then finally huffed angrily and shifted off the couch. Eren missed the warmth of his hand immediately and he reached back to rub at his neck.

Levi picked up the phone, back to Eren, but even from where he sat he could see how tense his shoulders were.

“What?” He did _not_  sound pleased.

Eren reached forward to pause the movie, mostly for something to do, and then took another huge sip of his beer, feeling like his nerves were frazzled.

“Right now?” Levi asked, sounding incredibly annoyed. “I’m kind of—I was in the middle of something.”

What did that mean? Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Eren wanted to rush over to Levi and shake him, demand to know what that was supposed to mean. Instead, he just took another sip of his drink. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to get trashed after just one drink.

“Fine. Yeah, I get it. I’ll be right there.”

When Levi hung up, he did so with so much force he actually broke the table the phone was on, which also subsequently broke the phone, the appliance hitting the ground hard. Eren jumped but didn’t say anything, eyes on Levi’s back. He looked like he was trying to take a few calming breaths, and it was obvious he was incredibly unhappy with whatever the call had been about.

He was silent for a few seconds and Eren wondered if maybe it was bad news.

“Um, is everything okay?” he asked uncertainly.

Levi seemed to take a deep breath, then he turned and moved back to the living room, shoving his hands into his pockets. Eren noticed the tips were dark moments before they disappeared from sight, suggesting Levi had lost control again. That was probably why he’d been trying to calm his breathing over by the phone.

“It was my editor. I need to head to Trost, there’s a situation with my publisher.”

“Oh shit,” Eren blurted out. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m not sure yet, but I need to go.” His eyes strayed to the food on the table and his jaw clenched. “Rain check?”

“Yeah, of course.” Eren stood quickly, setting the beer down and beginning to close the bag of chips. “I’ll just—it’s cool, really. I kind of dropped by unannounced anyway, so we can just... You know, next time. Whenever. Just let me know.”

“Sorry Eren. I would stay if I could.”

“It’s totally fine,” he insisted with a nervous laugh, shoving the food back into the bag, along with the three movies they hadn’t chosen. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. Um, I can leave you _Final Fantasy_ , you can finish it when you get back.”

“I’ll call you, we can finish it together.”

“Right.” Eren stood awkwardly beside the couch, holding the bag. “Um, I’ll just—I hope everything is okay. With the publisher.”

“Thanks,” he muttered. “I’m hoping it won’t be long, but can you warn your dad I might be away for a while? These things usually don’t get resolved overnight.”

“Oh, yeah, of course.” Eren nodded, moving towards the door. Levi followed him, looking like someone had just kicked him in the gut.

“And make sure Mikasa keeps an eye on you at night.”

“What?” Eren blinked, then realized what he meant. “Oh, yeah, of course. I’ll be fine, it’s all good.”

“Right,” Levi said, but his look suggested he wasn’t so sure.

“Uh, good luck. I’ll see you around then.”

“Yeah.”

Before Eren could pull open the door, Levi reached out one hand, running his palm along his cheek briefly before pulling it back. It was a shorter touch than usual, but Eren waited anyway to make sure he was done. Determining that he was, he nodded once, pulled open the door, waved over his shoulder, and left the house. He was heading back for his truck when Levi called out to him. When he turned, it looked like he was going to say something, then seemed to change his mind.

“Thanks. For wanting to hang out.”

“Sure.” Eren waved awkwardly then turned and hurried back to his truck. He threw the bag into the passenger seat, then shut the door. Starting the car, he waved again, feeling stupid, and then turned around, heading back down the long drive.

Given what had just happened, he didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts right now. Not when he wasn’t sure _what_ , exactly, had been happening. Or about to happen. Or maybe about to happen?

Either way, he couldn’t be alone with that. So he turned left at the street just past the store and headed for Jean’s house. At least that garburator would finish the food for him.

And talk enough to keep his mind off what had almost maybe been about to happen.

 _Fucking stupid phone,_ Eren thought savagely.

He had never hated phones so much in his entire life.

* * *

They never did pick back up from where they’d left off. Levi ended up being gone for well over a week. It bothered him not to have Levi around, but the other called him every day. It was strange, because he didn’t remember ever giving him his phone number.

He figured Levi had swiped it during one of his many nights hanging out in his room.

Which was something else that bothered Eren. Sleeping. He was afraid to sleep, which worked out well for him since he ended up doing the night shift most of the time. But the two times he didn’t, he was scared to sleep. Mikasa had promised to keep an eye on him, and he trusted her, but Levi was different. He sat awake in Eren’s room, making sure he didn’t miss anything. Mikasa was sleeping, mostly just hoping to catch Eren if he wandered out of the house.

Well, not that he knew she was sleeping, but he guessed she was. And that was fine, but it didn’t make it easy for him to sleep.

Rolling over on night nine of no Levi, Eren stared out his window at the inky blackness beyond. He didn’t much like the dark anymore. It reminded him too much of the dream he’d had, with the shadow fighting Levi.

He wondered if that was what was after him. Some shadow creature. Or maybe it was just his brain supplying him with an image that represented the unknown.

And _why_  was something after him, anyway? Eren was just some boring guy in a boring little town in the middle of nowhere. Not even! Shiganshina didn’t even technically qualify as a town, it was too small. He was literally a nobody in the middle of nowhere.

So why? Why was something after him? What purpose did it have? Was it because he could survive around a wolf? But even then, it was just the one. He wasn’t really anything special, he was just...

Sighing, he buried his face in his pillow, wishing he had more answers. Wishing he knew why he was being hunted. And did the sleepwalking have to do with it? Given the wolf’s reaction, probably. But would it be so bad if he just... saw where it went? Couldn’t he just follow the voice and see where he ended up? What if it wasn’t even an evil being calling to him? What if it was like, a trapped fairy or something and the wolf was just a possessive dickwad?

But then there was Levi. Levi had a bad feeling, and Eren trusted him. He wasn’t going to go against what he said because he knew Levi was just trying to protect him.

From whatever.

Letting out another sigh, Eren hugged his pillow tighter. He missed him. It seemed stupid, but he did. He’d gotten used to having him around, talking to him, making jokes. He’d gotten used to waking up and seeing Levi at his desk, of having him randomly show up at work. He suspected that it was because of Levi’s continued presence at night that his nightmares of his time in the truck had gone away so quickly. Levi was always around, and it made him feel safe.

It had only been a few weeks of Levi being like that, but it felt like years. It felt like Eren had always had Levi around, and having him gone felt... wrong.

What if he stayed out in Trost during the next full moon? He may not necessarily like the wolf, but he kind of... enjoyed spending time with it. Petting it, reading with the wolf right beside him, sleeping with that sense of security at his back.

“Great, now I even miss him in wolf form,” Eren muttered, tugging his blanket up over his head.

Doing that made him feel sleepy so he threw it off him again, rolling onto his back and staring at his ceiling. He wondered if Jean was still awake. He’d bought a new game and Eren never understood how his schedule worked so maybe he was still up and Eren could head over. But if he did and Jean was sleeping, he’d have wasted his time.

Besides, if he suddenly left the house and Mikasa happened to wake up, she’d probably freak out.

Letting his eyes slide shut, he tried to keep his mind distracted. He didn’t want to sleep, but maybe if he was careful, he’d be okay.

He was just so fucking tired.

Eren felt his mind drifting and he knew he was about to pass out. He tried to fight it, but only half-heartedly. So what if something got him? He could worry about that when he woke up. Maybe Levi and the wolf were being over-protective? Maybe it was nothing.

“Eren? Eren!”

His eyes snapped open and he winced, sunlight stabbing at his retinas. Groaning, he rubbed his face with both hands and turned to see who’d woken him up before jerking up into a seated position.

“Levi. You’re back.” He frowned. “How did you get in here?”

“Mikasa let me in, but we don’t have time, we need to go.” He grabbed Eren’s hand and tugged hard.

“Go? Go where?”

“Come on, get dressed, hurry.”

Eren was still half-asleep and disoriented but he did as he was told, tugging on a pair of jeans and yawning widely while yanking a shirt out of his closet and pulling it on over his head. He was about to grab socks when Levi took him by the hand once more and dragged him from the room, hurrying down the stairs.

“Come on, Eren. This way.”

“What is going on?” Eren demanded, rubbing at his face with his free hand and almost missing the bottom step. He caught himself before plowing into Levi and was allowed a few seconds to pull on his sneakers.

“Just hurry, Eren. This way. Come on, this way.”

He pulled open the front door and began rushing down the porch steps. Eren followed, stopping at the threshold, staring out at the brightness of the day. What was happening? Why wasn’t Mikasa there? She had the day off, and he was sure she’d have mentioned if she had plans. And Levi was acting weird.

Well, weird _er_.

Eren looked down at his hand, the one Levi had been holding. Levi never took him by the hand, he always grabbed him by the wrist.

“Eren!” Levi rushed back to him, grabbing his face in both hands. That, at least, was semi-normal, but also not at the same time. He didn’t usually just cup his face, he dragged his hands across his cheeks, down his neck, along his arms. But this time, he didn’t. He just cupped his face and said, “We have to go.”

“Go where? What’s going on? Why won’t you explain?” Eren slapped one of his hands away, but Levi brought it back up to his face and next thing Eren knew, he was kissing him. He’d had to pull his face down since Levi was slightly shorter than him, but the kiss was hard and almost desperate. Like this was his one chance and he couldn’t control himself.

When the kiss broke, Levi pressed his forehead to Eren’s, left thumb rubbing gently at the brunet’s cheek.

“You trust me, right?”

“Yeah, I trust you.”

“Then come on. This way.” He took Eren’s hand and tugged again, pulling him out of the house. Eren let the door slam behind him, the sound loud and almost startling him. He shook the feeling off and hurried after Levi, the other still tugging him by the hand.

They’d made it all the way to the bottom of the driveway when someone shouted his name and a hand landed on his shoulder.

He was whipped around, the action disorienting, and when he blinked, he found Mikasa’s terrified face staring back at him.

The sun was gone, everything dark and silent in the neighbourhood. It was still the middle of the night, and when he turned to look over his shoulder, Levi was gone.

“Eren.” A hand on his cheek and he turned back to Mikasa. She looked so scared. Why did she look so scared?

“Levi was here.”

“Levi isn’t here, Eren,” she insisted, moving to wrap her arm around his shoulders. “Come on, let’s get you back inside.”

“No, Levi needed me to follow him. He wants me to go that way.” Eren turned, motioning down the street. He didn’t know where he was pointing, he just knew this feeling was telling him that was the direction he had to go in.

“Eren, listen to me!” She moved in front of him and grabbed his face. “You were sleepwalking. Remember? Levi told me to look out for you. He isn’t here, and the only place he wants you to be is in bed.”

Mikasa turned when the landline began to ring, loud and shrill through the silent house. The front door was still open, and the phone rang and rang. She cursed and grabbed Eren’s arm, pulling him back towards the house.

He followed slowly, feeling drunk. He shook his head and rubbed at his face with his free hand. Levi wasn’t there? But he’d just seen him. What was Mikasa even talking about? Of course Levi was here, he’d just kissed him and everything.

Eren tripped over the bottom of the front door, which was closed and locked behind him. Mikasa was still gripping his arm while dragging him to the kitchen for the phone. It was still ringing. Why was it ringing?

Right. Grisha was at the clinic, and Carla was doing the night shift with Frieda. Apparently Frieda was uncomfortable working the night shift alone, but Eren needed a day off. Despite having offered to work, Carla had insisted he stay home and get some rest.

“Hello? How did you—? He’s fine. I stopped him. What? I don’t know, he’s pretty out of it. Okay. Okay.”

Eren stared at the outstretched hand, blinking blearily at the phone it held. It took his hand a few seconds to cooperate but he finally raised it and took the phone, bringing it to his ear.

“Hello?”

 _“Eren.”_  Levi sounded half-asleep, but also incredibly relieved. _“Are you okay?”_

“You were here. Why did you leave?”

_“I’m still in Trost, Eren. Whatever you saw, it wasn’t real. Whoever is after you probably used me to lure you outside. Everything else hasn’t been working, so they tried a different approach.”_

“But you were here.”

_“I’m not there, Eren. You need to go back to bed. I’m going to fucking tie you to the headboard when I get back.”_

“You kissed me.”

He saw Mikasa’s eyebrows shoot up but didn’t understand why. Even Levi had gone silent.

“Where did you go?”

_“I told you, Eren, I’m still in Trost. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Just go back to bed, stay with Mikasa, and **don’t**  leave the house. Understand?”_

“Okay.” He pulled the phone away from his ear and hung up. He felt like he’d forgotten something, but couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Come on, Eren. Let’s get you back to bed.”

“Okay.”

Eren let Mikasa bring him back upstairs, feet dragging and stumbling every now and then on the steps. It was weird, because he felt really safe in that moment, with Mikasa leading him back upstairs the way she was doing. He liked it.

They made it back to his room and he fell onto his bed, closing his eyes and hugging his pillow. He heard his door close and more shifting in the corridor, but his mind began to drift again and he fell asleep once more.

When he woke up a few hours later to the sun shining and cars driving by outside, he couldn’t help but lie in bed for almost an hour, his brain trying to figure out if he was actually awake or not. Mikasa poked her head into the room around ten, and when she found him lying there with his eyes open, she stepped closer to the bed, watching him.

“Are you okay?”

“Am I actually awake?” he asked quietly, turning to look at her when she didn’t respond. “The dreams are so real, Mikasa. I woke up and it was daytime, and Levi was here, and he had to get me out of the house. So I followed him. And next thing I know, you’re shaking me and I’m outside in the middle of the night.” He covered his face with his hands, digging the heel of his palms into his eyes. “I can’t keep doing this. I need to know what the fuck is happening. I can’t keep waking up and not know if I’m actually awake or not.”

He felt the bed dip, Mikasa sitting beside him. She sighed and he felt her fingers in his hair. She wasn’t much of a talker, but having her close was helping. He felt better. Safer.

Like with Levi, but different. With Levi, it was more pronounced, like he’d murder someone to keep him safe. He was sure Mikasa would, too, but she didn’t really put out that aura.

“I think you need to talk to dad.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t, okay?” He sat up, forcing her hand away and rubbed his face. “Shit. Did I really tell Levi he kissed me?”

“You did.”

“Shit.”

He supposed it could’ve been worse. It wasn’t like their movie night hadn’t been suggestive. Something was changing in their relationship and whether or not they let it was mostly up to Levi, at this point. Eren felt like he’d made his stance on everything pretty clear.

“You really like him.” He turned to Mikasa when she said this. “Levi.”

“I do.” Eren sighed and looked away, raking one hand through his hair and standing. “I just... don’t know what to class our relationship as. I mean, we started out pretty weird, but now I’m just... I really like him a lot. I kind of—think I was dreaming about kissing him because I _want_  to kiss him.”

“Then kiss him,” Mikasa insisted, standing and brushing off the front of her dress pants. “It’s not like you to be thoughtful, usually you’re impulsive and just do it.”

“It’s different with him,” Eren muttered. “I don’t know, it’s complicated.” He turned to head for his bathroom, muttering that he was going to take a shower, then shut the door behind himself. He leaned back against it, letting his head fall back against the door and closed his eyes.

He was glad it had been a dream. The kiss hadn’t been what he’d wanted. It had been too urgent, too desperate. He didn’t see Levi that way, he was always calm and collected. He was always in control. Eren felt like kissing him shouldn’t be an act of desperation.

Sighing again, he pushed off the door and moved to the shower. He figured he should probably take a cold one. Things were about to get more complicated.

* * *

Levi scowled at the table while he leaned back in his seat, doing his best not to seem as angry as he felt, despite knowing he wasn’t doing a good job of it. He’d been ready to go home, everything had been sorted out with his editor and the publisher, and then Erwin had to fuck it all up.

He was going to be spending _another_  night in Trost, at this rate. If the old farts didn’t stop talking soon, he wouldn’t be able to leave in enough time to get home. He hadn’t been sleeping well being away from Eren, so he knew if he left too late, he ran the risk of falling asleep on the road.

“There’s no harm in experimenting a little. We can ensure every precaution has been taken, no harm will come to the boy.”

“We’ve already done that,” Erwin said calmly, levelling Darius Zackly with a cold, hard gaze. “Levi and I tested that theory, and I almost killed him. I also injured Levi a great deal. I’ve told you before, Zackly, he’s not special, it’s Levi’s wolf that’s reacting differently to him.”

“You can’t expect us to take your word for it,” Djel Sannes insisted. “For all we know, you’re hogging him!”

“And why would we do that?” Erwin asked. “What possible reason would we have to ‘hog’ him?”

That shut Djel up, because he didn’t seem to have an answer for him. Levi was getting annoyed with the conversation, they were going in circles. After this comment, Erwin once again reminded them of the first video he’d sent them. The one that clearly showed Eren running out of the basement in terror because Erwin was trying to break out of the cage to eat him.

He didn’t even understand their fascination with Eren, but he knew that was just the protective side of him talking. If something about Eren made it possible for the wolves to be around humans, then finding out what that something was would certainly help them never accidentally kill again. Levi was just tired of hearing them wanting to meet him. He wasn’t letting _anyone_  near Eren.

No full-blown, yellow-eyed wolves were allowed near Eren except him, and even then, he wasn’t happy about it.

“Levi.”

He forced his eyes back up, turning to regard Zackly when the other spoke to him.

“You’re sure you don’t remember anything? He didn’t enchant you or coerce your wolf in any way?”

“Enchant?” Levi wanted to laugh. He settled with staring at Zackly as if the other were fucking stupid. “Are you suggesting Eren is a malicious being intent on causing me harm?”

“You have to understand, this entire situation is unheard of.” Zackly scowled. “Humans and wolves do not coexist peacefully.”

“Could it be something in the air there?” Djel piped in again. “Perhaps something in Shiganshina is calming to the wolf. Levi’s been living there, which would explain why Erwin attacked. He hasn’t been exposed as long.” He turned to Levi. “Have you been around any other humans?”

“I don’t exactly make it a habit,” Levi said dryly. He checked the time, scowling again. He had to leave. He wasn’t leaving Eren alone another night. “I don’t have time for this shit.” He stood up, glancing at each pack leader in turn. Most of them had remained silent during the meeting, but he knew all of them wanted the same thing: one night with Eren.

Levi would kill anyone who went near him.

“I want to make something very clear,” Levi said, voice lowering dangerously. “You all know that I am one of the best fighters. It’s already been made clear that the wolf will protect Eren at the cost of its own life, and we all know that if any of you come at him, I’ll fucking kill you. Stay away from Eren, he isn’t an experiment, he’s a person, and I have no problem killing anyone who tries to hurt him.” He turned on his heel to walk out, hearing Erwin chuckle and try to play off his words as a joke.

He knew that wouldn’t work. Everyone knew he was serious. If any wolf went near Eren, he’d smell them. He’d know, and he’d hunt them down and murder them.

Exiting the building the meeting had been held in, he saw Hanji leaning back against Erwin’s car, playing some kind of game on their phone, tongue between their teeth. They’d come along in hopes of being let in, but the pack leader meetings were reserved for pack leaders only. Levi had been allowed in only because the meeting had been about Eren, and he was the resident expert.

If knowing dick all about why this was happening made him an expert.

“How’d it go?” Hanji asked when he approached, wanting to get back so he could get into his truck and drive home.

“If any of them goes anywhere near Eren, I’ll murder them.”

“Erwin won’t let that happen,” they insisted, seeming to have lost their round and sighing, putting the phone away. “They’re just curious. You can’t blame them. If I had a human I could be with both as a human and a wolf, I’d be all over them.” Hanji turned to him, a small smirk on their face. “ _Have_  you been all over Eren? Aside from the obvious ‘all over him’ you’ve been doing. Does he even _know_  what you’ve been doing?”

“No.” The tone made it clear this was not open for discussion but Hanji had never been one for taking a hint.

“You know, you should probably work on being all over him. In the normal way, not the wolf way. He really likes you, he made that pretty clear when he was talking to us about you.” They nudged him and Levi managed to refrain from tearing their arm off and beating them to death with it.

Thankfully, Erwin emerged moments afterwards and they all climbed into his car, driving back towards the blond’s apartment where Levi had been bunking. He wanted to get his shit and go, catch Eren before he went to bed.

“I think I made it clear to them that Eren isn’t different,” Erwin said, turning the corner and beginning to short drive home. “It’s something specific between the two of you. They should leave him alone.”

“They better.”

“Zackly knows you’ll kill anyone who goes near him. Some of the others aren’t so sure, but I don’t think you need to worry just yet.” Erwin cast a glance at him. “Be careful with him, Levi. I know you’re protective, but don’t get yourself killed over him.”

Levi wanted to tell him that he didn’t think he had a choice, but he refrained. It wouldn’t be fair. He knew he had some protective instinct over Eren, but it didn’t control him. He could resist it when he wanted to, it just made him uncomfortable and antsy. The wolf didn’t seem to have much of an option, but as a human, if he truly didn’t want to protect Eren, he could walk away.

The thing was, he _wanted_  to protect him. Keep him safe. Be with him. He really liked being with him. He felt a weird sense of belonging when they were together, and he was heavily attracted to him.

His hand curled into a fist when he remembered the previous week. If that stupid call hadn’t come in, he wondered what would’ve happened on the couch. He’d been planning on kissing him. He’d been prepared to lean forward and do it, and he was fairly certain Eren would’ve let him, but then the phone went off.

Levi knew it was a bad idea to have a landline. If it had been his cell, he wouldn’t have stopped. Even if he’d have heard it from upstairs, it was unlikely Eren would have. He could’ve gotten away with kissing him without the interruption. And that killed him.

And on top of that, there was his call the previous night with Eren.

He’d woken up in a cold sweat, his brain shrieking at him that something was wrong. Of course, that could only mean one thing, so he’d immediately called Eren. When he hadn’t received a response, he’d called Mikasa. When he still got nothing, he called the landline. He figured if the Jaegers were home, he’d make it up to them later for the hour. As it turned out, the two parents didn’t answer, and the longer the landline rang, the more terrified he became. He’d had visions of Mikasa running through the streets, screaming Eren’s name, trying to locate him, trying to find out where he’d gone.

Then, finally, _thankfully_ , Mikasa had answered and Eren was there. He’d been so relieved he hadn’t even known how to articulate himself. And when Eren had come on the phone, that had pretty much all gone out the window.

Why was Eren dreaming about him kissing him? Was that what he wanted? Levi would be more than happy to oblige, but he didn’t know if that was actually Eren’s wish. What if it was all a ruse in his head to make Eren hate Levi?

Whoever was after him—for _whatever_  reason!—obviously knew Levi was in his life. In what capacity, that wasn’t clear, but if they were now using Levi to coax Eren out of the house while he was dreaming, they obviously knew he meant something to Eren.

But how much? How much of it was Eren’s own subconscious, and how much of it was the evil being after him?

“I would suggest you stop with the recordings,” Erwin said, snapping Levi out of his thoughts. “Or if you continue, don’t send them out. Not even to me.”

“Why? You won’t do anything,” Hanji insisted, moving to poke their head between the two front seats.

“I won’t, but the other pack leaders may try and get into my email. I don’t want anything happening to Eren, he’s going through enough.”

“What’s the consensus on him knowing about our kind?” Hanji asked, which made Levi scowl at them angrily for bringing it up.

“Most of them are worried, but he’s made it clear he won’t tell anyone. It’s been a long time since he’s found out, if he was going to expose us, he would have by now. The vote is still in favour of leaving him be.”

That was good, because Levi would kill anyone who got too close to Eren. Something they all knew.

“You heading home right away?” Erwin asked.

“Yeah,” Levi said, turning to look out the window again, thumb unconsciously rubbing against the tattoo on his left wrist. He noticed Erwin glance at the movement of his hand, but the man said nothing. “He’s still sleepwalking. I don’t want to leave him alone. Any luck on your front?”

He saw Erwin hesitate out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look at him, the man smiled slightly. “What I found doesn’t relate to Eren. Perhaps it can wait.”

Levi figured he’d done something he shouldn’t have so he didn’t push. The last thing he needed was to get angry right now. He just wanted to get home to Eren.

“Nothing else? About our histories?”

“I’m still working on Eren’s genealogy. It’s taking some time, but I’ll let you know if I find anything when something of interest comes up.”

“Thanks.” Levi clenched his hands into fists, watching the scenery pass by. He’d be home soon. He’d get back there and be with Eren soon.

Just a little longer.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Final Fantasy (c) Square Enix

Levi didn’t make it home until well past eleven that night. He was exhausted both mentally and physically, but he couldn’t not see Eren, and he knew it. He had to go and keep an eye on him, so he was planning on stopping at home and dropping his stuff off, then heading over.

He didn’t end up doing that only because when he pulled up to his house, Eren’s truck was sitting in the front yard. Frowning, Levi stepped out of his own truck, grabbing his bags and then slammed the door. He inhaled while heading for the front door, and could smell both Eren and Mikasa. The Mikasa smell was easier to follow because she’d never been up there before, and it was obvious she’d entered the house and not left yet. He tried the door and was somewhat amazed to find it locked. He figured one of them—probably Mikasa, she seemed more considerate—had assumed he wouldn’t like his front door unlocked since he never left it that way.

Digging his key out, he unlocked the door and stepped into the house, setting his bags down and shutting the door. He followed Mikasa’s scent into the living room and stared down at his couch. She was passed out with a blanket, sleeping soundly. He turned to follow Eren’s scent, finding the more recent path to have gone towards the basement door. He opened it and descended the stairs, stopping at the bottom and staring at what greeted him.

The air mattress he’d bought for Eren was inside the cage, the brunet snoring and sprawled out on it. The cage was locked and it looked like he’d used a sock to tie the handle in such a way that he wouldn’t be able to open it without undoing the sock. Levi figured Eren hoped his sleepwalking self wouldn’t be able to get his fingers moving properly to undo it and let him out.

He moved closer to the cage and bent down, looking in at Eren’s slumbering face. He looked completely stupid, and Levi always found it funny when people commented on how beautiful their loved ones looked while they slept. Eren didn’t look cute, he looked fucking stupid.

His mouth was hanging open, he had drool on his chin, he was snoring, and his limbs were all over the place. He looked like an idiot.

Didn’t make him any less endearing though.

Hesitating before deciding he could be careful, Levi slowly moved his right hand through the bars, being sure not to touch them with his skin, and brushed some of Eren’s hair out of his face. He let his hand slide down his neck, pressing it against the side and feeling Eren’s steady pulse beneath his palm. He didn’t know why he was there, but being close to him, touching him, knowing he was safe... Levi felt calm, now. He felt better than he had in days. Eren was here, and he was okay. That was all that mattered.

He heard a noise upstairs and footsteps, suggesting Mikasa had woken up. He quickly retreated his hand, being sure not to touch the bars, and stood. When he turned, she was halfway down the stairs, watching him curiously before looking at Eren.

She crossed her arms almost defensively, then nodded towards the stairs. He cast one last glance at Eren, then headed upstairs with her, closing the basement door. They walked into the kitchen, Mikasa turning on the light, and then sat at the table.

“When Jean told me you had a cage in your basement, I didn’t believe him.”

“It’s for a book,” Levi said, trying for exasperated, as if he’d said it a million times before.

“I know, Eren told me.”

“Why are you both here?” Levi wasn’t annoyed by it. If anything, he was pleased, and while he was fairly certain he knew why they were there, he didn’t want to assume.

“Eren’s idea. He was—worried. We didn’t know when you’d be back, and he wasn’t working the night shift today. He didn’t want to sleepwalk again, so he said he’d come here and sleep in the cage.” Her hands clenched into fists on the table and he saw her pull them beneath it onto her lap. “He didn’t want me to come but I wasn’t going to risk leaving him here alone. What if he got out and found his way down the road? He could’ve gotten hurt. So I came with him.”

Levi nodded slowly. “But why are you worried? You didn’t let him go anywhere yesterday, so what makes you think you wouldn’t have stopped him today?”

She looked unhappy with herself when she replied, and she wouldn’t look him in the eye. “I didn’t wake up yesterday,” she whispered. “Not on my own. I had a weird... feeling. Like something was wrong. But I was tired, and I ignored it. I kept sleeping. I only woke up because Eren made me.”

“How so?”

“He slammed the front door when he left.”

Levi found that weird. He’d never caught Eren closing the door. Every time Eren wandered out of the house, the door always stayed wide open. He’d never once shut it.

“I think it was Eren’s subconscious knowing something was wrong, and he did it just randomly. It startled me awake and when I realized what it was, I ran to his room. He wasn’t there so I chased him down outside. Luckily he was still in the driveway but...” He let out a slow breath. “I’m not like you. I can’t stay awake all night. I almost didn’t catch him.” She looked up at Levi then. “We have to tell my father. Why won’t either of you listen to me?”

He could see how desperate she was. How scared and confused she was. He knew she would have told Grisha immediately if not for the fact that Eren had made her promise not to. He felt that soon, even that promise would begin to mean nothing. If this went on much longer, she would tell him, no matter what Eren said.

Levi didn’t know what to tell her. She didn’t know what he was the way Eren did. She didn’t know about this entire other world that existed. He couldn’t bring her into the fold, it was too dangerous. Not only for him, but for Eren, too. People weren’t supposed to know Werewolves and Vampires and other things that went bump in the night existed. No, he wouldn’t tell her or anyone else Eren knew. Not unless he had no other choice.

It was getting close to him having no other choice, if he was being honest with himself, but... not yet. He wasn’t desperate enough yet. He, Erwin and Eren could handle it for now, there was no need to involve anyone else.

“It’s complicated,” he whispered. “Just believe me, your father won’t be able to help. Nobody can help.”

“You don’t know that,” she snapped.

“Mikasa, this sleepwalking isn’t normal,” he insisted, struggling to find a way to explain. “It’s—like a feeling. Like something is calling to him, drawing him out. It’s not going to go away with medication or therapy.” Levi didn’t really know what people did to help prevent sleepwalking, but he assumed it was something like that. Mikasa didn’t correct him, so he was either right, or she didn’t know either.

“He’s gonna get hurt.”

“I won’t let that happen,” Levi said immediately. “Trust me.”

“I don’t even know you.”

That was true. “Then trust Eren. He has faith in me, so trust that I’m not going to let anything happen to him.”

“You watch him on a daily basis, and that’s great, but what happens when you leave next time?” She crossed her arms. “What happens when you go away again.”

“The cage is always free for his use.” That was true, even when Levi was in it.

Well, maybe not while he was _in_  it, but the wolf wouldn’t let him go anywhere anyway. Which was a good thing, because the change was fast approaching, Levi only had a few more days before the full moon.

Mikasa tried to stare him down, but Levi was more practised at it so he just stared back. When it became clear she wasn’t going to win, she stood and headed back for the living room to sleep. Levi stood as well, grabbing one of the kitchen chairs. He moved to the entrance, ignoring Mikasa’s eyes on him, and wedged the chair against his front door so that Eren would have trouble opening it. That would wake him up from upstairs, and would likely also wake Mikasa in the next room.

With that done, Levi grabbed his things and went to his room. He didn’t unpack, he lacked the energy. Knowing Eren was all right and safe made him more exhausted than ever so he just stripped out of his clothes and went to bed.

By the time he woke up the next morning, Mikasa and Eren were gone, and all he was left with was a note with an apology.

He didn’t know what the apology was for.

* * *

Eren let out a loud sigh, cheek resting in his hand while he idly flipped the page of the magazine he had in front of him. It was the newest one he’d found that had pictures of his coveted motorcycle, but after staring at it longingly for almost an hour, it was beginning to lose its appeal.

He let out another sigh, eyes straying to the price, and knowing he would have enough by now if he’d stopped being irresponsible with his funds.

“Will you stop sighing like that?” Jean asked grumpily, sitting on the back counter and playing some kind of racing game on his phone. “You sound like a lovesick damsel.”

“I can’t understand you when you speak horse,” Eren replied easily, which had Jean throw something at the back of his head. It wasn’t hard enough to warrant Eren turning around, so he didn’t.

Truthfully, he _did_  feel like a lovesick damsel, and it really bothered him. He hadn’t seen Levi for days while he’d been gone, and now that he was back, Eren didn’t really know how to act. He’d been so caught off guard when he’d woken up at Levi’s and found out he was home that he was amazed he hadn’t woken him up with his mini freakout.

It wasn’t that Eren was a spaz or anything, it was just—weird. He liked Levi, and before he’d left they’d kind of, sort of been maybe about to kiss, and now he was back and it just...

And Eren hadn’t even _seen_  him since he’d been back! The other had returned almost three days ago, but he hadn’t been scheduled, and if he watched Eren while he slept, he didn’t make his presence known. It made the brunet feel like he was avoiding him.

He didn’t want Levi to avoid him. He wondered if this was how Levi had felt when Eren used to hide in the office or storage room during their shifts all those months ago.

A loud explosion sounded behind him and he heard Jean mutter under his breath before he jumped off the counter.

“Well, I’m out. I got shit to do tomorrow, so I’ll see you later, yeah?”

Eren just grunted and draped himself across the front counter, resting his forehead against the magazine still in front of him. The edge of the counter dug into his abdomen, but he was too lazy to move. Or wallowing in self-pity too much to move, maybe. It was hard to tell.

He felt Jean pat his back and moments later the door opened, and then shut.

With Jean gone, he allowed himself another long, drawn out sigh, wondering when Levi was going to be back on the schedule.

His father had taken him off since he’d been absent for so long, and now that he was back, it wasn’t fair to replace someone’s shift with Levi so he would have to wait until the following week. Eren had four shifts with him next week, but next week was oh so very far away right now.

He couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that Levi hadn’t asked him to come by to finish their movie. After all, he’d said they would watch it together, hadn’t he?

Maybe things had changed. He’d been gone for a while, maybe Erwin and Hanji had reminded him of the good life he’d had with his fiancé and now he felt guilty for wanting someone else. Not that Eren knew he _wanted_  someone else, let alone him, but a guy could hope, couldn’t he?

When the door opened again, Eren didn’t even bother to look up. It was obvious it was just Jean coming back, he hadn’t heard his truck leave yet.

“Forget your brain behind the counter?” Eren asked, voice muffled from his bent over position.

He received no reply and when the silence stretched to an almost uncomfortable degree, he came to the conclusion that it _wasn’t_  Jean and looked up. He immediately straightened when he found Levi standing in front of him on the other side of the counter.

“Hey,” the other said.

“Hi!” Eren practically shouted. Levi just stared at him and Eren winced, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “Yeah, that was loud. Um, hi. Hey.”

“Hey,” Levi repeated. “How are you?”

“I’m good. You know, okay. Fine?” Eren felt like all of this would’ve felt a lot less uncomfortable and awkward if they hadn’t almost kissed and then Levi had disappeared for a week.

And his brain also decided that now was the _perfect_  time to remind him of the fact that he’d told Levi they’d kissed while he was half-asleep, and it immediately made him want to kill himself.

A truck rumbled to life behind him and Eren concluded that Jean had just started his vehicle so he could go. He’d probably been playing in his car, since the moron was obsessed with video games. Eren didn’t know when that had started and he tried to occupy his mind by thinking back on it. Anything was better than being embarrassed out of his pants like he felt right then.

“How was Trost?” Eren asked instead, trying to get a conversation going so his brain would stop sabotaging him.

“Awful.”

One word. Wasn’t much of a conversation.

“Everything get settled with your publisher, then?”

“Yeah.”

Levi obviously wasn’t in the mood to cooperate with Eren’s desperate attempt at keeping a conversation going. He had to wonder if wolves had mind-reading capabilities, too. Maybe he just liked watching him squirm.

Or maybe he could smell... something? Maybe Eren smelled weird.

It was hard for him to resist turning to sniff his own shirt, but he only managed because he figured he probably couldn’t smell what Levi could anyway. He didn’t have the nose for it. Hell, he could barely smell his own dirty laundry in his closet, he doubted he’d be able to smell anything weird about himself.

When he opened his mouth to try to make conversation _again_ , Levi finally let him in on what he was thinking because he spoke.

Eren was caught completely off-guard.

“Do you want to have dinner?”

It took his brain a few seconds to process the words, Eren staring at Levi mutely while the rickety gears in his head turned. When they finally clicked properly, he blurted out an answer with much more enthusiasm than he was planning.

“Yeah! Sure, yes! I—yeah! I like dinner!” He beamed at Levi, feeling like an idiot, and then cold tendrils of dread began creeping down his spine. The smile slid off his face, and he noticed the small one Levi had been sporting disappear just as quickly when Eren’s face fell.

“I’m not—I’m not _the_  dinner, right? Like, you don’t mean we’re gonna have dinner and you’re gonna eat me, right? We’re going out for dinner, you’re not implying that _I’m_  the dinner, right?”

It was extremely difficult for him to shut his mouth, but he finally managed it and only because Levi’s eyes had darkened and he felt fear snaking up his spine. He had to look away before the wolf took over and Eren wet his pants.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” Levi muttered, almost sounding like he regretted asking.

 _Almost_ , but not quite.

“No, you’re not the fucking dinner. You’d probably taste too fatty anyway.”

“Hey!”

“So if your tiny little brain can comprehend my invitation, do you want to have dinner?”

Eren knew he should feel insulted, but to be fair, it had been a rather stupid question. Then again, when Levi repeated himself, he realized the wording was a little—off. He’d been excited at first, but now the purpose behind the dinner dawned on him and he realized it wasn’t what he’d thought. It was dinner, that was it. No underlying meaning. He was probably trying to make up for their ruined hang out day from before his departure.

He deflated once more but forced himself to prop up his voice, smiling as best he could. “Oh, okay! Yeah, sure. If you’re not planning on eating me, then yeah. I like dinner. It’ll be fun to hang out somewhere different.”

When Levi was silent, he chanced a look at him and felt like Levi was staring exceptionally hard. He had a weird look on his face, like he was wondering if Eren was playing dumb or _actually_  dumb. Eren didn’t feel like he was either, but it was hard to convince Levi of anything.

“To make sure we’re both understanding, and you’re not just a fucking moron by accident,” Levi leaned forward on the counter, Eren leaning back slightly. “I am inviting you to _dinner_. Eren, would you like to go. To. _Dinner_?”

Eren stared at him and wondered if maybe he _hadn’t_  misunderstood originally. Maybe he was over-thinking. Or maybe he was under-thinking?

Maybe he needed to figure out the correct amount of thinking this question required?

Levi was still giving him a look and Eren realized that he was definitely being a fucking moron.

“Oh.” Then he acknowledged in his own mind that Levi was _actually_  asking him out. “Oh!” Then he realized he hadn’t actually answered. “ _Oh!_  Like a-like a date?”

Levi looked like he was regretting this entire conversation. “Yeah, like a date.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah. I mean, as long as I’m not dinner.” He laughed awkwardly, then winced, realizing he was making it weird. But no one had ever asked him out before! How was he supposed to act?! “Yeah, I—dinner would be really cool. Um, when did you have in mind, like, next week or...”

“You free tomorrow?”

“I—yes?”

“Tomorrow then. I’ll pick you up at five. Try and wear something appropriate.”

Eren opened his mouth, not even sure what he was going to say, but before he could, Levi leaned forward and dragged one hand roughly across his cheek, palm flat against his skin. He scowled slightly, like he was unhappy with something, and brought the other hand up. Eren stood there while Levi molested his face and neck with both hands, letting them drag across his skin, watching Levi’s eyes watch his own hands on Eren’s face. Once he was satisfied with whatever the fuck he was always doing, he retreated his hands, inhaled deeply, nodded once to himself, and then turned to head for the door. He paused before exiting, turning to offer Eren a small smile. Eren thought maybe he was about to say something sweet, like he was excited about the dinner, or really happy Eren had said yes.

He should’ve known better.

“For the record, don’t get me wrong. Eating you _is_  pretty tempting, you _do_  look good enough to eat, but I think I like you better breathing. For now.”

“For now?” Eren asked, feeling blood draining from his face. “What do you mean for now?” The door shut behind Levi and Eren raced to the back counter, knocking insistently on the window. “Levi, I know you can hear me! What do you mean for now?! Levi! I take it back! No date! Don’t come pick me up at five! Levi!”

* * *

“You’re sure this is okay, right?” Eren asked for what felt like the hundredth time but was probably the thousandth if the look on Mikasa’s face was any indication.

“Yes. You look fine.”

“I don’t care how I look, he just said to wear something appropriate! What does that even _mean_?! Like, does that mean business attire? Does it mean cocktail attire? Does it mean business casual? So like, just not my usual hoodie and jeans? Why was he so fucking cryptic?!”

“You’ve clearly never been on a date before,” was Mikasa’s ever-so-helpful comment while she flipped idly through the pages of a book. Eren had discovered an hour ago that it was Levi’s first one. Mikasa had gotten curious enough to read it.

“I usually do the inviting! I usually know _exactly_  where we’re going, so I can dress appropriately!” Eren countered, shaking out his hands and beginning to pace. He didn’t know why he was so nervous.

Actually, that was a lie. He knew why he was nervous. He was nervous because he cared. He cared a lot. He _wanted_  this date to go well! And he was worried he was going to fuck it up somehow. What if he said something stupid?

Well, Levi was used to that, so that probably wouldn’t be a big deal. But what if he made a fool of himself?!

Then again, Levi was used to that, too.

Now Eren was pacing and trying to think of things Levi _wasn’t_  used to that could fuck up this date. He was used to Eren being chatty, and stupid, and putting his foot in his mouth. Thinking about it, there really wasn’t much Eren could do that would ruin this. Except maybe kill someone. Or offend a mob boss.

Were there mob bosses where they were going? Shit, what if Levi brought him to some weird casino place and they gambled and he pissed off a mob boss and their date ended with them running for their lives?!

Or worse! _Worse_! What if they were going to an event for one of Levi’s books and Eren embarrassed him? What if the publishers were there?! What if Eren said the wrong thing, made a bad comment, destroyed Levi’s writing career?!

“Sometimes I really wish I was a mind-reader so I could see what goes on in that brain of yours,” Mikasa commented.

“Mikasa, I’m gonna fuck this up!”

“Do you like him?”

Eren paused in his pacing, turning to stare at her. “What?”

“Do you like him?”

“If I didn’t like him, do you think I’d be panicking?!”

“Then just don’t fuck it up,” was her helpful response.

Eren just gave her an annoyed look and began pacing again. He heard the front door open ten minutes later and thanked the heavens before rushing out of the room, not even letting his mother put her bags down before splaying his arms and demanding her opinion.

He didn’t know how “appropriate” he was supposed to dress so he’d tried for safe. He was wearing a light grey long-sleeved button-down shirt with black slacks and polished shoes. They were only polished because he’d spent an hour scrubbing at them with polish when he’d dug them out of the back of his closet.

He’d also chosen a tie—striped, but not crazy—and stuffed it in his pocket in case he needed it. He was hoping he didn’t since they were uncomfortable and choked him, but if he did, at least he’d have it.

“You look fine, sweetie,” his mother reassured him, moving past him, patting his cheek and then kissing the opposite one. “I knew it was only a matter of time. You’ve been sleeping over at his house long enough, you deserve to be taken out to dinner to make it more official.”

Eren was too nervous to whine at her about teasing him. He just ran back upstairs and burst into Mikasa’s room again. She didn’t even flinch, too used to her brother’s eccentricities. He began pacing again, Mikasa continuing to read silently.

Oh God, he was sweating now. Was it showing on his shirt?! Maybe he had pit-stains!

He raced to the bathroom to check, but he was okay for the moment. He really didn’t appreciate the little smile on Mikasa’s face when he returned to her room.

It was a weird feeling, being nervous about a date. He’d never felt nervous about a date before and now he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe it was because he hadn’t really cared. Maybe he wasn’t excited the previous times and had just decided to ask girls out because he didn’t want to die old and alone.

A sentiment he had quickly begun accepting when no one seemed quite right for him.

It was different with Levi. Yes, he was terrifying sometimes what with the whole wolf thing, and, oh yeah, there was also _the whole wolf thing_ , but still. It was just… different. It wasn’t love at first sight or anything like that—not unless love at first sight felt like you were gonna wet your pants—but after spending time with Levi and talking about his past and his family, or lack thereof, it just…

It was different.

 _This_  felt like what a relationship was. This was actually legitimately two people communicating, being honest with each other, acknowledging each other’s flaws, and still accepting them.

Thinking about their weird relationship was making Eren calm down a little bit. He started to wonder if Levi was just as nervous as he was. Possible, but Levi hid things like this better than he did. Even back in the store the previous evening when he’d invited Eren, he’d looked completely normal and calm but the more Eren thought about it, the more he remembered the set of Levi’s jaw, the way he’d almost smiled and then let it fall off his face. The concern when it looked like Eren was going to reject him. The annoyance at being misunderstood.

Levi had been nervous, and that… was kind of awesome. It made Eren feel a little better.

By the time the doorbell rang half an hour later, Eren was completely calm and collected.

Until he opened the door and actually _saw_  Levi and he turned into a nervous wreck again. His only solace was that he could actually tell this time that Levi was just as… not nervous, but maybe unsettled. Like he was outside his own comfort zone.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” Eren managed to keep the greeting at a respectable volume this time. “You’re exactly on time. I should’ve figured, what with you and punctuality.”

He got a look for that, but the tenseness between them seemed to diminish a fraction of a percentage.

“Let’s go or we’ll be late.”

“Do I need a jacket, or…?”

Levi turned back to him and Eren saw him give him a quick once over before grunting that he looked fine and continuing out towards his truck. Trying not to be disappointed with the lackluster reaction, Eren called goodbye to his family—his mother poked her head out of the kitchen to give him a thumbs up, which he ignored—and then shut the front door.

He headed quickly to Levi’s truck and got into the passenger seat while the other man started it and backed out. Then they were driving down the street in silence.

It felt awkward again. Eren wished it didn’t, and he wished he knew how to make it _not_  awkward, but he didn’t. So it was just… awkward.

He wanted to ask where they were going, but that would mean speaking and he was kind of afraid to speak just then. He wanted things to be like they usually were, but he couldn’t force words out of his mouth, so he just stared out the window at the passing scenery until they were heading out of town.

“This is where I found you.”

Eren turned back to Levi. “Huh?”

“The first time you were sleepwalking. This is where I found you.”

Eren didn’t remember much about that night. He remembered it happened, and he remembered being confused, and injured, but not much more than that. All he really remembered was the feeling of it, but he felt like that was more due to how often it had been happening lately. He always felt a weird pull, like he had to _be_  somewhere. Like someone _needed_  him.

A feeling that always seemed to be muted whenever he was at home, at work, or with Levi. He suspected it was because Levi was always at his house or at work so, really, the pull was muted whenever Levi was around.

A part of him still wasn’t sure he was making the right choice, staying away, listening to Levi over his own instincts, but then again, his own instincts didn’t tell him that Levi was wrong. Whenever his head was clear, he knew that the thing calling him was trying to cause him harm, but it was still so surreal that he could hardly believe it.

Werewolves and clouded evil beings and Vampires and magic. It just felt so ridiculous, even if he knew it wasn’t. His truck also knew it wasn’t.

“What if it never stops?” Eren asked quietly when he realized he’d disappeared into his own head. “What if whatever is after me just keeps coming until it gets me?”

“I won’t let that happen,” Levi said, voice hard.

“You can’t be with me all the time, Levi. You have a life, and two jobs, and your… monthly problem.” He couldn’t help but smile a little when he said the last bit, but Levi didn’t seem to be in the mood for any humour because he didn’t even scowl at him.

“We’re going to figure it out, Eren. I won’t let anything happen to you, and neither will the wolf. My anxiety goes crazy when you’re not in my general vicinity, I don’t even want to think about what would happen if you ever ended up where the voice is trying to lead you.”

Eren scratched absently at a divot in the arm rest, nail catching on the edge every time. “Can I ask you something?”

“If I say no, will you listen?”

“Probably not,” Eren muttered, eyes on his moving finger.

Levi was silent for a moment, as if realizing Eren was serious. “What is it?”

“Are you just around me because of, you know, the whole wolf thing? Like, the wolf seems pretty in control of you where I’m concerned. So are you just… around and inviting me for dinner and everything because the wolf wants to keep me safe?”

The silence that followed was extremely disheartening and Eren couldn’t help but be disappointed. He’d been looking forward to this date because he thought it was a _date_. Now it just sounded like the wolf wanted to keep Eren close and a date seemed like a good call.

“Did I ever tell you about why I moved here? To Shiganshina?”

Eren turned to him then, eyes on the way his jaw had clenched, his grip had tightened, his eyes had narrowed.

“No.”

He waited, but Levi didn’t say anything. A few moments passed in silence and Eren thought maybe Levi had changed his mind about the conversation.

He wasn’t going to be left hanging like this.

“The reason?” Eren prompted.

Levi scowled at the road, then let out an annoyed grunt and glanced in the rear-view mirror. Turning on his blinker, he did a shoulder-check and then eased off the road and onto the shoulder, other cars passing them by since they were on a busier road out of town now.

“Why is this pull over worthy?” Eren asked cautiously, concerned.

“In case you decide you want to exit the car.”

Well that didn’t sound ominous at all.

“And why would I want to do that?” Eren asked, still speaking slowly and choosing his words carefully.

Instead of answering his question, it sounded like Levi was just going to start.

“I don’t like you thinking that I’m only doing this because of whatever weird protective instinct I feel for you. Sure, that was what made me interested at first, but that feeling isn’t dominant. I can ignore the protectiveness if I really want to, and honestly, at the very beginning, I did. You were an annoying little shit, and you thought I was a serial killer, so when everything started, I decided I would keep an eye on you if it was convenient for me, but it’s not like I can’t decide to ignore it.”

Levi frowned then, Eren waiting for him to continue. It was like he was struggling to find the right way to convey what he was trying to say.

“I know how this is going to sound once I tell you the full story, but it isn’t what it looks like. I asked you out yesterday because you’re attractive, and funny, and I like spending time with you. You’re a total moron, but at this point, your stupidity’s just endearing.”

Eren scowled at that but didn’t say anything. He was worried Levi would change his mind and start driving again.

“So while you might doubt that when I tell you why I came here, I just wanted to have the opportunity to tell you that first. To explain to you that the feelings I have aren’t stemmed from the protectiveness of the wolf.” Levi turned to him, as if waiting for some kind of confirmation that he understood, so Eren just nodded.

Levi stared out the windshield once more, let out a deep—almost annoyed—sigh, and leaned back in his seat. He crossed his arms, smoothed out his expression, and began speaking again.

“After Eld died, I was kind of a mess. I knew I had to get out of the apartment and a part of me even wanted to leave Trost. I didn’t think I would, I’ve lived there my entire life, but it was just an itch. A whisper of an idea in the back of my mind. I thought nothing of it at first, attributing it to Eld’s death, but that changed a week after he died.

“It was the middle of the night, and I’d been having trouble sleeping as always, when suddenly I was in the middle of a heated argument with a faceless person. I knew immediately I was dreaming because there isn’t a being I know of that exists without a face. I don’t even remember what we were arguing about, we were just fighting, and it seemed natural. Like we did it all the time.

“After a few minutes of arguing, we were kissing, and then, we were fucking. It’s hard to explain, because I couldn’t see this person’s face but somehow it was like my brain already knew what they looked like. It wasn’t supplying me with the image, but kissing and fucking them wasn’t weird.

“When I woke up from that dream, something seemed… wrong. I felt a pull, like I was supposed to be somewhere, and the longer I ignored it, the stronger it got. It was telling me I had to go, I had to be somewhere.

“I know it sounds a lot like your sleepwalking, but this pull was different. Mine was a choice, it made itself known and just kept pushing for me to listen and to act on what I was feeling. Yours isn’t, you’re not even conscious when it’s happening.

“It didn’t take long for me to decide to listen to my instincts. Someone needed me, it didn’t feel malicious, the dreams were becoming more… intense. So I packed up and set out. I got in my car and started driving. I didn’t have a set location, I just drove and whenever the feeling got worse, I turned around. When it was more tolerable, I knew I was on the right track. As soon as I got to Shiganshina, the feeling was the best it had been. To test it out, I drove out of town and the feeling got worse.

“Trying that a few times, it made it pretty clear that whatever I had to find was in that town. So I got a hotel in Stohess, looked at what was available in Shiganshina, and called the closest realtor. I saw the place the next day and bought it.

“That first day after seeing you, I didn’t think anything of it at all until I went to bed. I had the dream again, but I’d gotten used to it by then. The thing that struck me was that the faceless being suddenly had a face, and it was yours. I’d barely paid enough attention to you when I’d seen you, but my brain remembered every single detail of your face, of your hair, your eyes. Everything.

“I was pretty freaked out when I woke up because I didn’t understand what it meant. I tried to ignore it as much as I could, and for the most part, it worked. After I got settled, I went looking for a small part-time job and as I was passing the store, I felt the pull again. I thought I might get some answers, so I walked into the store and met your father. The protective instinct was there for him as much as it was for you, but it was like the wolf was satisfied about him. Grisha wasn’t in danger, so it was just content to be near him and know he was happy and healthy.

“Then you walked in and the feeling practically disappeared. That was when I knew that I was there because of you. Still no fucking clue why, but I was. So I started hanging around and listening in on your conversations. I felt like I needed to protect you, so I did, but I wasn’t happy about it.

“When I found you sleepwalking through the streets that one night, I was freaking out and had to get you home. When I did and you were safe, I realized that the panic I felt was different from the protectiveness I felt. The protectiveness is more of an anxious, uncomfortable feeling. When the anxiousness spikes, it means something’s wrong with you, and the panic sets in but the panic is more of an aftereffect to the realization that you’re in trouble.

“After that, we started getting closer, we became friends. I started to really care about your well-being and I realized then that I had cared for a while, I’d just been using the protectiveness as an excuse not to acknowledge it.

“When we got locked in that storage room… I thought you were going to die. I was so panicked at the thought of hurting you, someone my brain was hard-coded to protect, that I didn’t even know what to do with myself. So when I woke up and found you fine, I knew something was different and even now I can’t remember if I felt any sense of anxiousness while we were locked in together. All I can remember is the panic, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe I wasn’t anxious at all. If maybe my brain knew everything was going to be okay but I was too focussed on the past actions of the wolf to calm down enough to recognize that.

“Once I woke up and you were fine, everything that happened after that changed our relationship. The anxiousness is always there, and I know there’s still something after you, but the attraction and pull I feel towards you isn’t related to that. It’s not about the feeling, or the dreams, or anything other than just me legitimately thinking you’re fuckable and amazing.

“So that’s how I ended up here. Because the wolf needed to find you, and as a consequence, I ended up wanting to date the one person that explaining this to would be the most complicated.”

Eren was fairly certain he’d never heard Levi say so many words in one sitting. He also knew for a fact he’d never sat through something Levi told him without interrupting him before, either.

Truthfully, he didn’t really know how to feel about it. To know that Levi had been dreaming about fucking him before even knowing his name or what he looked like… it was weird. And unsettling. But similarly, he couldn’t even imagine how it felt for Levi. To yell at a group of men in a car to get off his property, and then dream about fucking one of them? That would be weird.

And Eren couldn’t even begin to relate in any fashion. He hadn’t started this with feelings at all. He’d found Levi attractive because, honestly, only a blind person wouldn’t think he was good looking, but he’d been afraid of him and had also kind of disliked him a great deal at the beginning. The attraction on his side had been gradual, and fairly normal progression-wise, he thought.

The way Levi explained it, it sounded gradual on his end, as well, but still involved some level of influence. Eren supposed that his two biggest fears were that one, this wasn’t actually what Levi wanted and he just didn’t know any better, and two, Levi was going to up and leave as soon as the danger in Eren’s life disappeared.

Both were big gambles, and the former upset him. He didn’t want to feel like someone was with him out of a false sense of attraction when it was actually a weird sense of duty.

When the car started moving again, Eren assumed Levi was going to turn around and go back to the house, but he didn’t. He kept driving towards wherever they were headed, not saying a word and keeping his eyes on the road.

“I’m guessing you’re okay with what I think?” Eren asked. _Whatever I even think,_  he thought to himself.

“I have no idea what goes on in that hamster ball brain of yours. Whatever it is, you didn’t tell me to turn around, so I’m going to hope you trust me enough to believe me. I mean, you trust me with your life, so why not with the truth?”

Eren hadn’t really considered that. It was true that he trusted Levi a _lot_  so really, couldn’t he afford to give him the benefit of the doubt? If Levi said the attraction wasn’t influenced by the wolf, then he was going to believe him.

Besides, after the bomb Levi had just dropped, there was no _possible_  way for Eren to ruin this date. He was pretty sure any stupidity that came out of his mouth would just be _endearing_.

* * *

Eren woke up to a phone ringing, head jerking slightly and his neck in agony. Blinking open bleary green eyes while the phone continued to demand attention, the brunet rubbed at the back of his neck, trying to figure out why it hurt so much.

He heard a groan, a curse, and then movement beside him. When he turned his head, he found Levi ambling towards the front hall where the phone was ringing. Eren hadn’t really noticed he’d replaced it. Or the table. Though to be fair, he hadn’t exactly been looking around the last time he’d come over, he’d just gone to the basement and fell asleep.

“What?” Levi’s annoyed, tired voice demanded of the caller.

Eren winced and rubbed at his neck some more, trying to get the painful feeling to go away. His eyes shifted to the television screen, where the main menu for _Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children_  was playing. He must’ve fallen asleep.

It was a little nice to realize that once he’d passed out, Levi hadn’t just brought him home. A bed would’ve been preferred, but he figured Levi hadn’t wanted to freak him out by putting him in a bed and then sleeping beside him. Eren, personally, didn’t mind but he figured Levi probably thought of things like that.

He couldn’t help the grin on his face when he thought about their date the night before and fell down sideways on the couch so he was lying down properly, giving his poor neck a break from the uncomfortable position it had clearly been in all night.

While the beginning had been a little, well, almost _rocky_ , the rest of the evening had been fine. Dinner had been at a super fancy—almost uncomfortably so—restaurant. For Eren’s part of the date, they’d gone for McDonalds ice cream afterwards. He couldn’t afford anything better right now and Levi had listed off the names of all the places Eren could afford where he was fine eating dessert from. McDonalds had won.

After that, they’d talked about movies during the drive home and had remembered they still hadn’t finished the one they’d started. So they’d gone back to Levi’s to do just that and Eren must’ve fallen asleep.

Overall, a good date. None of that weird awkwardness he’d been expecting—barring the beginning but, to be fair, Levi had made it awkward first. They still hadn’t kissed or anything, but Eren was okay with that. He wasn’t in a rush or anything.

“Your parents _do_  know you’re an adult, right?” Levi asked, voice drifting closer. Eren peeked open one eye and found the other man hovering over him. “Move.”

“Make me,” he teased with a grin.

Something flashed in Levi’s eyes, and Eren wondered if he’d been a little excited by the challenge. It wasn’t even a big one, but he supposed given their relationship, any challenge was a welcome one.

“You sure you want to be saying that to someone with super strength?”

“Good point.” With a groan, Eren sat up so that Levi could take a seat once more but he then immediately lay back down with his head on Levi’s lap, closing his eyes and more than ready to keep sleeping.

A hand buried itself in his hair and he let out a content little moan in the back of his throat, Levi’s fingers scratching idly at his scalp and running smoothly through the strands.

“What’s your schedule tonight?”

“Sleepy sleepy,” was Eren’s reply, feeling himself slowly drifting off once more.

Levi was silent for a moment, hand continuing its movement in his hair. Eren was aware of the fact that he was debating something, and he was still trying to figure out what it was when the other man spoke.

“It’s the first night of the full moon tonight,” he said quietly. “Are you coming over?”

“If you’ll let me.” Eren opened his eyes so he was looking up at Levi. He felt like he should’ve noticed it sooner. The other looked pale and feverish, the same as he did every other time he’d turned. “I really don’t mind the wolf, you know. Erwin—not really a fan. You? You’re fine. It’s kind of... comforting.”

Levi let out a soft sound that could’ve been a scoff, but Eren wasn’t quite sure. “I’m starting to think you like the wolf better than me.”

“He’s pretty adorable,” Eren teased. “I’ll talk to my parents.”

“Again: your parents _do_  know you’re an adult, right?”

“Doesn’t mean they don’t worry.” Eren grunted and sat up, rubbing the back of his neck and wincing before turning so he was sitting with his legs crossed and his back against the arm rest, facing Levi. “I should just tell them not to expect me home when I go out with you.” He frowned. “They probably think we’re having sex.”

“Everyone thinks we’re having sex,” Levi informed him.

“What?!”

“I overhear people a lot.” He shrugged, as if it were no big deal to him. “When I walk by, they all say something along the lines of, ‘that’s the asshole the Jaeger boy is fucking’.”

“Nobody says that!” Eren insisted, horrified and feeling his ears beginning to burn.

“Not in those words, they’re more like, ‘that would be the gentleman that young Jaeger boy has been fornicating with,’ or whatever other weird bullshit words people use in this town.”

Eren honestly couldn’t tell if he was joking or not and that almost made it worse. Not to mention he just realized that he hadn’t told Jean about his date with Levi. Mikasa had likely told him by now, and Jean had probably sent him a million text messages.

He felt like it would be best to face the explosion in person, it was easier to calm Jean down over a supposed betrayal of trust when he didn’t have the ability to hang up on him.

“Is it okay with you if I come by later tonight?” Eren asked. Realizing he should elaborate, he added, “I mean like, after you change. I know that’s not really ideal for you, but listening to you go through that is... hard.”

“I understand.” He couldn’t tell based on Levi’s expression and tone if he _did_  understand or not, but he didn’t argue it so Eren just nodded.

“I should go.”

“Do you want breakfast first?”

He wanted to say no, that he had an angry horse to go tame, but the idea of leaving the house right now seemed... hard. He wanted to be here with Levi.

A little longer. Just a little longer.

“Sure.”

“Good, it’s your turn to cook.”

“Say what?!”

* * *

**[User]**  
Where are we standing right now with The Boy?  
**[User]**  
I’m getting impatient. What’s happening?

 **[Raven]**  
i’m doing my best here  
**[Raven]**  
it’s not like he’s alone EVER  
**[Raven]**  
damn wolf bastard is stuck to him like a second fucking skin

 **[User]**  
Do I have to do EVERYTHING myself?  
**[User]**  
If the wolf is a problem  
**[User]**  
Just get rid of him.

 **[Raven]**  
it’s not that simple  
**[Raven]**  
if he’s distraught, it won’t work properly  
**[Raven]**  
you know that

 **[User]**  
That fucking wolf is ruining everything  
**[User]**  
I should’ve taken him when I had the chance  
**[User]**  
I want The Boy NOW.  
**[User]**  
And lucky for us, we know one time of the month the wolf can’t keep him safe.

 **[Raven]**  
full moon tonight  
**[Raven]**  
want me to come over?

 **[User]**  
I’ve got it.  
**[User]**  
Let’s see him resist it tonight while his little friend is of no use to him.

* * *

Eren shut the front door to Levi’s house silently behind him, shifting the bag off his shoulder and kicking off his shoes in the entrance. He’d been sleeping over in his jeans and shirt the last few times he’d spent the night and, honestly, it was uncomfortable. He wanted to get a good night’s sleep while there, so he’d decided to bring some pyjamas.

Of course, his mother had been _highly_  inappropriate about the whole thing. He was pretty sure she was already writing out ‘save the date’ invitations. He supposed she was just relieved he wasn’t going to die alone, not that he and Levi were really together yet. Kind of. Sort of? Maybe headed there, but still not quite there.

Shuffling to the bathroom by the kitchen, Eren tossed his bag on the floor and bent down beside it. Pulling out his toothbrush and toothpaste, he brushed his teeth, then relieved himself, then changed into a pair of sweats and a loose shirt. Normally he’d forego the shirt, but with the wolf, it was safer to have a shirt.

Packing everything away, he pulled out his book and then shut the bag, leaving it on the bathroom floor since he wouldn’t need it until morning. Wandering to the basement door, he double-checked the front door was locked and then opened the door, moving down the stairs.

The wolf was sitting at the door of the cage, watching him descend and then pad towards the metal gate.

“Hey buddy,” Eren said, reaching in and petting the wolf’s head. Its tail flicked once, and he smiled, falling onto the air mattress beside the cage.

He heard something clink and looked over, finding a note and, for some inexplicable reason, a pair of handcuffs. One cuff was already closed around one of the bars of the cage and he picked up the note, unfolding it and reading Levi’s neat print.

_Eren,_  
_I recognize the wolf doesn’t mean you any harm, but in case you sleepwalk again, I worry about it accidentally biting you in an attempt to stop you from leaving or, worse, breaking out of the cage._  
_I bought the handcuffs while I was in Trost. Before you go to sleep, please handcuff yourself to the cage._  
_Levi._

“You’re a kinky fucker, aren’t you?” Eren teased, looking up at the wolf. It was lying down now, close to where Eren was but not so close that it was touching the bars. For obvious reasons. The wolf was a lot like a dog, and Eren really liked dogs.

Settling himself on the air mattress, Eren opened the book and began to read, one hand reaching into the cage and petting the wolf. It seemed content, head resting on its front paws while Eren scratched.

He was halfway through the chapter he was reading when an uncomfortable feeling hit him. It was like a burst of anxiety and he could feel his heart picking up in pace. The wolf’s head shot up instantly and it began to growl.

Setting the book down, Eren rubbed at his eyes, and then rubbed his chest right above his heart. He could feel panic beginning to mount in the back of his mind, his pulse quickening and breathing coming faster. Something was wrong. He was in the wrong place. He had to get out.

He had to get out now.

There was a loud bang behind him, then a yelp, and he felt the entire cage shudder.

Turning, the panic mounted, but for a different reason.

“What are you doing?!” He stood quickly and turned to the cage, gripping the bars with both hands while the wolf rubbed its muzzle against its side, as if trying to soothe an injury.

Eren’s hand went to the lock, but he hesitated. Opening the door would be a stupid idea. Doing what he was considering was even _stupider_. But the wolf seemed worried and almost crazed. It was pacing back and forth, watching him, growling every few seconds. It seemed to coincide exactly with when the anxiety in Eren rose.

This was the darkness. The evil being after him. It was trying to pull him while he was awake, now. And the wolf would injure itself to keep him safe.

His hand was still on the lock, and he stared down at it, watching his fingers curl around it. What was safer? Going in the cage with the wolf, or staying outside and hoping he didn’t leave the house? The wolf would break the fucking cage down to get at him if he did.

Eren glanced over his shoulder at the stairs. They were calling to him, trying to force him up them. Trying to make him leave.

“Shit,” he hissed, turning back to the wolf.

He clenched his free hand then unlocked the cage. Stepping into it quickly, he kept his eyes locked on the wolf while shutting the door behind himself and reaching through awkwardly to lock it up again. If the wolf killed him, he didn’t want it escaping, so at least locking it would leave the casualties at one.

If the wolf didn’t kill him right now, then Levi was _definitely_  going to kill him when he found out about this.

The wolf stalked forward almost territorially, moving behind Eren and bumping his legs, forcing him away from the door. He obeyed, wishing he’d thought to bring the air mattress into the cage, but the anxiety was beginning to make him freak out. He quickly sat down beside where the bed was and reached through the bars, pulling the blanket through and wrapping it around his shoulders. The wolf was still growling and stalking back and forth in front of the cage door.

More than once, Eren found himself shifting to stand before a loud snap of the wolf’s jaw had him falling back onto his ass again. He curled in on himself, wrapping the blanket around him tightly and rocking slightly.

It was Mikasa. Or his mother. Or Jean. Someone was in trouble. Someone was in trouble and he had to go! He had to fucking _go_!

“No,” he muttered, clenching his eyes shut. “No, no, no. It’s okay. It’s okay.”

It wasn’t okay. He felt a panic attack coming, he was going to sprint out of the cage. He had to go, he had to, he couldn’t handle this!

“Fuck!” He slammed one fist against the bars and heard a clink. Looking down, his eyes caught sight of the handcuffs, which he had forgotten about. He hastily reached through the bars, pulling the other cuff into the cage and quickly snapped it on around his wrist. It bit into his skin, but he didn’t care, he just rubbed his forehead against the bars and tried to ignore his brain screaming at him. It kept changing who was in trouble. It alternated between his family and his friends. Even Levi was in there, which was one of the main reasons he knew this wasn’t real. Levi was right here, in the cage.

Well, kind of.

The fear and panic continued to mount and he felt like he was breathing much too fast. After about ten minutes, the panic was indescribable and he jumped to his feet, tugging and scratching at the handcuffs, kicking at the bars and screaming for it to let him go. To let him out. He had to go, he had to get somewhere. He had to leave!

“Let go!” He shouted at it. Blood was beginning to coat the handcuff, sticky and wet. “Let me out! I have to get out!”

With a shout, he suddenly fell backwards, landing hard on the blanket and wolf, groaning when his head hit the ground a little too hard. The wolf had just head-butted him in the back of the knees, which explained why he had half-landed on it.

It managed to get out from under him, grabbing the blanket between its teeth and tugging. It was yanked out from under Eren when he sat up and then dropped in his lap. Then the wolf moved back behind him, lay down, and stuck its wet nose against the back of Eren’s neck.

Eren didn’t even stop to consider what he was doing. He just turned onto his side and hugged the wolf with his free arm, his shoulder and head lying on the animal’s middle. He clenched his eyes shut, listening to the wolf’s heart in its chest.

It was beating fairly fast, but the longer they lay there, the slower it got. Within five minutes, Eren felt calmer, and he could hear the wolf’s heart begin to slow. He closed his eyes, still hugging it, inhaling deeply and trying to hang on to the safety of this feeling. The wolf was safe. Levi was safe.

Everything was okay. He was okay.

His wrist really hurt, but he ignored it, letting it rest against the ground. He shifted a little, eyes still closed, and got more comfortable. The wolf was warm. Warm and comfortable.

And safe.

Levi and the wolf were both safe.

Eren fell asleep. 


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always forget what chapter I'm on when I reply to comments because I save the next chapter as a draft before replying to them and it confuses my poor little brain |D 
> 
> Character (c) Isayama Hajime

Something heavy was lying on his stomach. It wasn’t necessarily uncomfortable, but it was still heavy and made him really need to piss. Having something heavy pressing against his bladder first thing in the morning wasn’t exactly Levi’s ideal wake-up call.

Struggling to bring himself back to the land of the living, he grunted once when the heavy object moved, making him almost release right then and there, but he managed to stop himself. Blinking open his eyes, he stared up at his ceiling, watching the shadows dance across the surface.

Tilting his head to check on Eren, his blood ran cold when he found the air mattress empty.

_Tell me the fucking little shit **didn’t**!_

Levi looked down.

Eren’s head was lying on his stomach.

“What the _flying fuck_ , Eren!” Levi shouted, shoving the other man off him so hard that Eren collided with the cage and woke with a shout. “What the _fuck_  are you doing in here?! Do you have a fucking death wish?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

“Ow,” Eren muttered, sitting up and rubbing at his head. “Shit, that really hurt.” He turned to Levi, annoyed and still half-asleep. “You don’t understand, the wolf isn’t going to hurt me, and—”

Levi’s expression must’ve terrified him because he cut off abruptly.

The Werewolf had gone incredibly still, heart racing and eyes wide. He inhaled deeply, nostrils flaring. He exhaled sharply, then inhaled again. And again. He had to make sure he wasn’t just imagining it.

He wasn’t.

“You’re bleeding.” It was a statement, not a question. “You’re bleeding! Where are you bleeding?! I swear to fucking _God_ , Eren, if the wolf bit you I am going to _murder_  you!”

Ignoring his state of undress, he grabbed at Eren and yanked him into a seated position before he could say anything. He had barely begun his inspection when his eyes caught sight of Eren’s right wrist.

There was dried blood on his hand, wrist and part of his arm.

“Jesus _Christ_ , Eren!” Levi stood and hurried to the door. He cursed again when his haste in getting it open had his arm rub against the silver bar, but he ignored the burning pain and jerked the lock out of place, using it to open the door.

Hurrying to the work station, he grabbed the key to the handcuffs and then rushed back into the cage, bending down in front of Eren and undoing the metal from around his wrist. He could hear Eren inhaling sharply, meaning he was hurting him, but he couldn’t help that. The cuff was so tight around his wrist and Levi was trying to get it off through all the blood that had caked onto it.

“What the fuck happened?” he demanded.

Eren said nothing and Levi finally got it off. It dropped to the floor, the other end still locked around the bar. Levi took Eren’s hand gently and lifted it, inspecting the damage. There were scratch marks, nails breaking skin, and the cuff itself had rubbed his wrist raw, as if Eren had been tugging and scratching at it in desperation to get it off.

“What. Happened?” he asked again.

“I think I should clean it up first,” Eren insisted quietly.

Levi stood, holding his hand out. Eren reached for it with his uninjured one and Levi hauled him up. He instructed him to find the First Aid kit in his bathroom, then sent Eren off while he found his clothes. His brain was too panicked to really focus on his clothes and he only managed to get his jeans on before he raced up the stairs after Eren. His bare foot hit something sharp on the first floor, but he ignored it and hurried up the next set of stairs.

Bursting into his room, he found Eren in the en suite, the water running. He hurried to his side and watched him gingerly wash the blood off his arm. Now that it was gone, it didn’t look quite as bad, but it was still fairly bad. There were deep gouges in his skin, as if someone had been scratching at his wrist. The bloody fingernails Levi had caught downstairs suggested Eren had been the one doing it.

“Are you going to talk to me now?”

Eren said nothing and reached for the Hydrogen Peroxide, pouring it out onto his wrist. Levi felt like he was both stalling _and_  wasting, but he said nothing. He just watched him clean and disinfect his injury.

When he finally turned off the water, he motioned the gauze. “Can you help me with that?”

Levi jerked his head at the toilet and Eren sat down on the lid while he took a seat on the edge of the tub, undoing the end of the gauze and beginning to wrap it slowly and carefully around Eren’s wrist. It looked like he’d been desperately trying to yank his hand out of the handcuffs, there were places where the skin was rubbed raw, but other places where the metal of the cuffs had actually broken through.

They were both silent while Levi worked on bandaging him up. He couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt at the sight of the injury. Every time he was near Eren, he found himself patching up a wound. He was a curse to anyone he got close to, and it was slowly beginning to make him feel like he should stay away from him.

“It’s getting worse.”

Happy for both the distraction from his own dark thoughts, and Eren’s actual willingness to speak, Levi looked up, hands stilling. “What are you talking about?”

“I did this to myself because I was trying to get out.”

“Get out?”

“Of the house. Of the cage. I was... I felt weird. Anxious. I felt like someone was in danger. The wolf got antsy so I did something stupid and I went in the cage. But you don’t understand, the wolf... it isn’t going to hurt me.” Eren shook his head, letting out a small sigh. “I got into the cage and felt like I needed to get out. I put the handcuffs on to try and ensure I wouldn’t go anywhere, and then the panic just... it felt like I was on fire. Like I needed to douse the flames, to get out and find... whatever.”

“How did you stop?” Levi asked, voice softer than he’d intended.

“The wolf,” Eren replied, just as quietly. “It came up behind me and it... it’s soothing. It makes me feel safe.” Eren’s gaze lifted slightly to meet Levi’s. “Like you. It made me feel like I was going to be okay, so I just clung to it until the feeling went away. Guess I fell asleep.”

Levi didn’t really know what to say to him. He’d never heard of anything like this before, so this was new territory for him, too. Whatever was after him knew about Levi. It knew that he was watching him, that was the only explanation for why the feeling had hit him while he was awake. Normally Eren didn’t start sleepwalking until the literal middle of the night. To have him still awake…

It knew. Whatever it was, it knew what Levi was. It knew it was the full moon and that Levi would be out of commission, but it _didn’t_  know that Eren could be around the wolf. If it did, it would’ve tried something else.

Levi was momentarily pulled from his thoughts when he realized Eren was trembling. He stared down at the other’s wrist, gauze still half-finished covering the wound. When he glanced up at Eren’s face, he found his head bowed, as if he didn’t want to look at Levi.

As if he were ashamed of being afraid.

Levi finished wrapping his wrist, being sure the gauze was tight, but not uncomfortably so. He taped it down with medical tape, feeling like Eren’s father would’ve done a much better job, then kept his light grip on his hand.

He didn’t know what to say. It was clear Eren was distraught and upset, but Levi just didn’t know what to say. He wished this was all his fault. That his presence had started this downward spiral so that hopefully his departure could stop this from continuing. But it wasn’t him. He’d come here because the feelings had started, because he had to protect Eren. This was going to happen regardless of his presence and leaving wasn’t going to stop it.

Eren’s entire frame was shaking now, and Levi didn’t know what to say, so he just leaned forward and hugged him. Eren kept saying he made him feel safe, so he pulled him closer and held on for dear life, pressing his lips against Eren’s temple while he hugged him.

They stayed like that for a few moments. Eren still seemed upset, but at least he’d stopped trembling. Levi didn’t want to let him go yet though, for selfish reasons, so he kept holding on until he didn’t have a reason to anymore.

Bringing his hands back around, fingers sliding along Eren’s back, he straightened ever so slightly so that he wasn’t pressed against him anymore. He sighed and rested his forehead against Eren’s, hands moving to originally grip his shoulders but they ended up cupping his face.

Eren’s eyes were closed, and Levi wondered if they had been the entire time they’d been hugging. He allowed that freedom for his gaze to lower, eyes finding Eren’s lips and then licking his own. He knew it wasn’t the right time, and he was almost ashamed of himself for wanting to kiss him, but it felt like he’d been holding himself back for years. It felt like he’d always wanted Eren, in some way, and he had never allowed himself to fully _feel_  it until it was confirmed Eren wanted that, too.

It made him feel horrible that he loved Eren so much more than he ever had Isabelle. It made him feel like he was betraying Erwin by seeking out something that the other man had sworn he would never do again.

It was different with Eren. It had always been different with Eren, and in some ways, Levi felt like he never would’ve been able to be with anyone else. Like maybe he’d been waiting his whole life for this stupid little shit and hadn’t known it until he’d seen the moron waving stupidly at him from the driveway.

He still hadn’t even fully decided what he was going to do. He was still debating it in his head, trying to determine how appropriate it would be for him to kiss him right now when he was so obviously upset.

That was what his brain was doing. His body had other ideas, and he realized that he’d subconsciously leaned forward and pressed his lips against Eren’s. It was a strange feeling, kissing Eren. He didn’t believe in any of that love at first sight or sparks flying or any of that other romantic bullshit, but kissing Eren felt… right. Their lips fit together perfectly. Moving them against Eren’s felt natural and effortless.

While all of this came to light, he suddenly remembered Eren’s state of mind and pulled away slowly, reluctantly. He still had his forehead pressed against Eren’s, but the other’s green eyes were open now, watching him. Levi just stared back.

He knew he should apologize, but he didn’t. It wouldn’t have been sincere, since he wasn’t sorry at all for what he’d done. Perhaps a little disappointed in himself for having done so while Eren was upset, but he wasn’t sorry for doing it by any stretch of the imagination.

They were silent for a beat, Levi trying to think of something to say. To explain his actions, or even try to justify them, but he didn’t. He had no words for Eren right then.

Which turned out to be fine considering once the initial shock Eren seemed to be in over being kissed wore off, Levi wouldn’t have gotten a word in anyway.

Tanned hands were in his hair, wrenching his head back while somehow simultaneously pulling him forward. Their lips met again and Levi quickly took control of the kiss, thrusting his tongue into Eren’s mouth and shifting one hand from his face to the back of his neck.

The air felt charged, and all Levi could think about was Eren. His taste, his smell, the way his heart was beating wildly beneath his skin. He wanted more, he wanted to get closer, to _own_  him, to possess every part of him.

Shifting off the edge of the tub, he moved into Eren’s lap, straddling him as best he could while the brunet was seated on the toilet lid, and buried his own hands in his hair, wrenching his head back. The kiss broke for only an instant, Eren letting out one loud gasp of air before Levi was back to plundering his mouth, wanting to memorize every single inch of it with his tongue. Their teeth clacked together painfully in their desperation for more, to get closer, but neither of them stopped.

Now that he had him, Levi didn’t think he _could_  stop. Eren was addicting. Everything about him screamed rightness and it made him wonder how he’d waited this long to come to Shiganshina. How had he resisted this temptation for so long? If he’d arrived earlier, he would’ve had Eren for so much longer. He could’ve stopped the evil before it had even begun to manifest.

Levi suddenly became aware of Eren tugging at his hair in a different way from before and he pulled away, biting down hard on Eren’s bottom lip, but not enough to break skin. The brunet panted, gulping in lungfuls of breath, lip still trapped between Levi’s teeth.

“Sorry,” Eren said, once more confusing Levi with an apology he didn’t understand. “This is just… getting kind of intense.”

Finally releasing the other’s lip, Levi leaned back and almost fell right off his lap. Eren had to grab him and steady him before he collided with the side of the tub. Nodding once in thanks, Levi carefully got to his feet and took a step back, holding out his hand to help Eren stand.

That was when he noticed the tips were dark and his nails had sharpened to points. He hadn’t even realized he’d started to shift.

Eren didn’t say anything about it, he just reached out his hand to take Levi’s and let him help him to his feet.

For the first time since having met Eren, he was a little annoyed that he was taller than him. He didn’t know why it suddenly bothered him, but in that moment, it did.

“You know wolves are extremely territorial, right?”

“Is that your unromantic way of asking me out?” Eren asked with a small smile, the two of them exiting the bathroom and heading for the door.

“Is that your idiotic way of accepting?”

“I do like the wolf. It’d be nice to spend more time with it.”

Levi didn’t deem that worthy of a response and just accepted that it was a positive reply. He headed down the stairs, Eren following along behind him. The smell of blood was still extremely palpable, and it bothered him that he could smell it. He didn’t like Eren being injured, it made him unhappy and edgier than usual.

He pointed at the table and told Eren to sit, acutely aware of the smirk that graced his features at that word, as if imagining saying it to the wolf in his head. Levi wondered if he’d ever done so and the wolf had obeyed. The thought was disturbingly annoying.

Not feeling like making a full breakfast that day, he just mixed some tuna and mayonnaise together, threw two bagel halves onto a pan, then covered them with the tuna mixture and cheese before sticking them in the oven.

Leaning back against the stove, he crossed his arms and watched Eren. He was sitting at the table, staring at his wrist, rubbing it lightly with his other hand. He stopped when he found Levi watching him, putting both hands under the table.

“What you did was stupid,” Levi said, finally able to go back to what he’d been wanting to talk about with Eren since waking up. He understood that taking care of him took priority—it always did—but now that he was okay and they’d calmed down enough from their make-out session, Levi remembered he was pissed as all hell.

“I _told_  you,” Eren insisted, sighing in exasperation. “The wolf isn’t going to hurt me. I pet it all the time, it likes being scratched.”

Levi felt his eye twitch at those words, annoyed at both the wolf liking scratches and Eren actually having been stupid enough to stick his hand in the cage.

“How many times have you entered the cage?”

“Yesterday was my first time.”

“It was stupid and reckless. You could’ve gotten killed.”

Eren just sighed in response, as if tired of this conversation. Levi wasn’t tired of it, he was fucking pissed off. What if something had happened? What if Levi had attacked him while he was handcuffed to the bars? Eren could’ve died! Levi felt sick just imagining waking up with him lying there, mauled to death. It brought back memories of Eld.

And Isabelle.

“You can’t come over tonight.” The words escaped him before he’d even realized he’d said them. He hadn’t even been planning on saying anything like that, the words had just slipped out. Probably because he was afraid.

Eren looked like he’d been struck, as if remembering the night before, but when Levi was about to correct himself, the other’s face shifted into his usual jovial expression and he shrugged, crossing his arms.

“Well, tough shit, because I’m coming over.” Everything in his stance and tone suggested, ‘and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.’

Levi was incredibly annoyed to realize that Eren was right. He _couldn’t_  stop him. Even if he took away the key, Eren would find a way to come in and do as he pleased. Maybe it was a bad thing he’d realized the wolf didn’t want to hurt him, because now he was going to be defiant.

“You can’t come over if you’re going to break my rules,” Levi said darkly. “You don’t just fucking walk into the God damn cage, Eren. It’s a _wolf_! It is an animal, and it might like you now, but what happens the day it doesn’t? What happens the day you get between it and dinner?”

“I’m not planning on putting myself in danger,” Eren insisted. “I’m not an idiot, Levi.”

Levi didn’t trust that, because only a fucking moron would’ve stepped into a locked cage with a wolf and handcuffed themselves to the bars.

The two of them stared heatedly at one another, and while Levi wanted to pull the wolf out a little and force Eren to look away, that almost felt like cheating and, to be honest, he was also worried that it might not actually work anymore. Eren was so used to the wolf that for all Levi knew, amping up the feeling might do absolutely nothing.

But the longer they had their staredown, the more he understood Eren’s point of view. He’d been scared and upset the night before, the darkness was calling to him, and the wolf was safe. The wolf made him feel less scared. It protected him.

He knew he didn’t have much of a say in the matter, and that Eren would come over whether he approved or not, but he could at least make it _seem_  like he was in control.

“You come into the cage again, and you’re never setting foot inside my house again. Understand?”

Eren nodded, so Levi left it at that, turning to check on their food so they could put this entire night behind them.

* * *

Eren hadn’t wanted to go home, because it would mean explaining his new injury, but he didn’t have a choice. He was working the morning shift—something that he’d forgotten about and had been over an hour late for. Frieda had been okay with it, mostly, but he still felt bad. He promised her he wouldn’t be late again, and told her she could come in a bit later that night to make up for it since she was on the night shift again.

He made sure to check the schedule so that he wouldn’t accidentally mess up again. With his weird relationship with Levi and all the people coming and going from the store, it was hard to keep his hours straight. For now, it would be okay. He was working the day shift, Frieda had the night shift. Tomorrow it was Levi and Reiner for the day shift, and Eren was working the night shift. He didn’t really like that, but there wasn’t anything he could do. He would just have to hope if the feeling came again that he could... resist? Maybe he could ask Mikasa or Jean or Armin to spend the shift with him.

Then again, that would require an explanation, and he didn’t exactly have one for them.

“Why are you being so weird lately, Eren? Oh, no reason, just been spending time with my Werewolf boyfriend and trying not to get siren-called away to some dark house in the woods for an evil shadow to feed on my insides,” he muttered to himself.

He immediately winced at his own words, not knowing when he’d become so gruesome. He could only assume Levi’s weird books were rubbing off on him.

“Dude!”

Eren leapt a mile high at the voice, especially when it was followed up by two hands slamming on the counter and Jean’s face being an inch away from his own.

“You’re too close!” Eren snapped, shoving Jean’s face away with one hand and trying to calm his racing heart. He hadn’t even heard Jean come in. He hoped he hadn’t heard him muttering under his breath about Werewolves and shadows.

“Did you seriously sleep over at Levi’s last night?!” Jean demanded, grabbing his wrist and yanking his hand off his face. Eren winced when it was his injured one, and whatever answer he had for him died when his friend looked down at what he held. He’d obviously felt the gauze and immediately let his wrist go.

“What happened to your wrist?” he asked, his loud and energetic attitude disappearing instantly at the sight of the injury.

“It’s nothing, I just—hit it against one of Levi’s tables. Sharp edges and all.” He wished he’d thought more on what excuse to give, but he hadn’t really gotten that far yet. His brain was still a little preoccupied with what he was going to do the third night of Levi’s change while he was alone at work.

Jean gave him a concerned look and when his eyebrows turned down into a frown, Eren knew this wasn’t going to be good.

“So... you and Levi then,” he said slowly, crossing his arms. “You’re together?”

“I guess. I mean, he implied he was asking me out and I implied I was accepting so, I guess?”

Jean was silent for a moment longer, and when he spoke again, Eren wished he could just tell him the truth without sounding crazy.

“You seem to come home from his place injured a lot.”

“Jean—”

“And I know you’re a tough guy. Like, I’ve seen you take a paintball to the face without a faceguard and still go apeshit on the other team in the next round. You’re tough as shit, so to see you come home all the time with little things...”

“Jean, it’s not Levi,” he insisted, giving him a look. “Do I strike you as the kind of person who’d put up with that shit?”

“Well, no, but you’re also pretty interested in him.” Jean’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t like it.”

Eren didn’t even know how to respond to that and he was trying to formulate an answer when the door opened. They both turned and Eren didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Levi had shown up then.

He didn’t even acknowledge Jean’s presence, he just walked over to the counter and moved behind it, kissing Eren’s cheek—which he had _not_  expected—and then gingerly took his hand, lifting it so he could check his wrist.

“You didn’t get your dad to re-bandage it,” he said.

“I didn’t have time to go see him. I was late for work, remember?”

“It should really get checked out. I’m not a doctor, I don’t want it getting infected.”

“Dad’ll check it tonight before I come by. I promise.”

“Wait, you’re going over to his place again?” Jean demanded.

Levi turned to give him a challenging look. Jean wasn’t as practised at them as Eren was so he immediately paled and took a step back. Eren had to elbow the Werewolf to get him to stop before Jean had an accident that _Eren_  had to clean up.

Levi was clearly unhappy about it, but he looked away, muttered that he was going to check on Eren’s mother—for whatever reason—and then left the store.

This left Jean free to lecture Eren for almost an hour about how dangerous Levi was and how he didn’t like where things were going. Eren didn’t have the energy to defend himself or Levi right then, so he just let Jean rant at him until he lost some steam and eventually left to find Eren some lunch.

Halfway through the afternoon, after Jean’s second appearance and disappearance, Mikasa showed up with a First Aid kit. She didn’t ask questions as he unwrapped the bandages and treated the wounds, but he could tell she was worried. She had a little pinch between her eyebrows that he was used to seeing whenever he and Jean got into trouble at school. He knew she wanted to say something, but she wasn’t going to say anything to him. She would say it to his parents, which was worse.

“It’s not Levi,” he said while she packed away the supplies she’d brought. “You know that, right?”

“I do.” Figured. She always was smarter than him. “I just wish you’d talk to me.”

“It’s... complicated.”

“My grades were better than yours, I’m pretty sure I can keep up.”

Eren said nothing, rubbing lightly at the new bandage on his wrist. He didn’t really have an answer for her, and he could tell it upset her that he wasn’t being honest. This was particularly difficult given he’d previously told her to trust him, and now he wasn’t trusting her. It wasn’t by choice though, it just wasn’t his secret to tell. He couldn’t do that to Levi, and he didn’t know what kind of repercussions it would have. Maybe Levi would be forced to kill them if they knew. He wasn’t really sure how all of this worked.

“I was worried about you last night,” she whispered.

“I promise, I’m fine.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

When Eren asked her to elaborate, she went quiet and didn’t speak again for a long while. She just stared at his injured wrist, the pinch between her eyebrows becoming more prominent.

“I need to head back,” Mikasa said when the silence stretched. “Are you coming home for dinner?”

“Yeah, but I’m spending the night at Levi’s again.”

Mikasa said nothing to this and walked out of the store. Eren sat behind the counter feeling like a giant asshole up until Frieda showed up for the night shift.

* * *

Jean scowled at his computer screen, rubbing one hand over his mouth while the other reached absently for the coffee cup beside the laptop. Fingers closing around the handle, he straightened in his seat and brought the cup to his lips, tilting his head back with his eyes still on the screen.

One drop. One measly drop of coffee.

Lowering it and finally taking his eyes off the computer, he looked down into the mug before turning in his seat.

“Hey Hannes, can I get a refill?” he asked, jiggling the mug by the handle slightly.

The blond man responded in the affirmative, but didn’t move right away since he was in the middle of making some complicated drink for someone else. Jean turned back to his computer, setting the mug down.

He spent a lot of time at Hannes’ when he was doing research—both when he was in school and now that he was out—so they had a long-standing agreement where Jean would walk in and get a coffee, Hannes would refill it throughout the day, and Jean would pay for his drinks collectively before he left. Sometimes he left without paying by accident, but it wasn’t like Hannes was worried about it. Not like Jean wasn’t going to come back.

Some days, Jean felt like he was single-handedly keeping Hannes in business, one cup of coffee at a time.

His gaze shifted to the side when he caught the man heading towards him and he tabbed out of what he was looking at, smiling gratefully at the caffeine fix when Hannes poured him a fresh cup.

“Internet addictions, huh?” Hannes asked, looking over Jean’s shoulder. “Kind of ironic, don’t you think, for someone like you to be researching internet addictions.”

“I’m a man of knowledge,” he insisted with a grin. “Even if it’s reaffirming I have an addiction.”

“Two,” Hannes corrected, shaking the pot he held a little, then slapping Jean on the shoulder and heading back for the counter.

Jean made sure he was truly gone before tabbing back to what he was _actually_  looking into, scowling at the screen and taking a sip of his freshly refilled cup. He opened a new tab and started typing something else in, beginning to scroll through all the hits on Google before switching search engines and going to specific sites. He tried to avoid Reddit, feeling like this was definitely one topic he didn’t want to look up there.

“Abusive relationships?”

Jean slapped his laptop screen shut and turned sharply, Connie standing right behind him. Sasha was at the counter, obviously ordering a drink.

“Do you mind?” Jean snapped, angry at having been caught.

“Not really.” Connie offered him a huge grin. “Don’t you need to be _in_  a relationship to be abused? Or are you and Jaeger finally admitting your super gay love for each other? I always knew you had the hots for him, you stare at him like he walks on water.”

Jean ignored Connie’s attempts at baiting him, continuing to glare in hopes that it would make him go away. It didn’t seem to be working, especially when Sasha wandered over with some kind of frozen coffee drink, slurping loudly through the straw, gaze shifting back and forth between Jean and Connie.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Jean’s looking up abusive relationships. New kink for him and Jaeger.”

“Hot. I know some good bondage sites,” Sasha admitted, grinning and waggling her eyebrows.

Jean just kept glaring, hoping to have them disappear by sheer force of will. Apparently the glaring made this seem like something they were concerned with, because Connie’s smile slowly slid off his face.

“Jean, why _are_  you looking up abusive relationships?”

“That’s none of your business,” he snapped, turning back to the table and reaching over to unplug his laptop. He stood, the chair scraping loudly against the floor, and began packing away his things in quick, jerky movements. He zipped the laptop bag shut and shouldered past the other two to the counter, throwing cash at Hannes and hoping it was enough before stalking out of the coffee shop. He wasn’t too concerned about the money, he was there all the time so it wasn’t like Hannes had to worry about him skipping out on paying his tab.

Jean had just reached his truck when someone grabbed his arm and forced him to a stop before he entered it. He turned to glare at Connie again, but the concern on his face made it hard to blast him with its full intensity.

“You only ever get this worked up about something if it involves Eren, Armin or Mikasa. As far as I know, Mikasa still hates you, and Armin’s still ace, so this is about Eren.”

“Is it about that guy who’s been following him?” Sasha asked before sticking her straw back into her mouth, resuming the loud, obnoxious slurping.

Jean turned to her sharply. “What guy who’s been following him?”

“The new guy,” Sasha supplied, motioning vaguely towards Rose street up the road. “You know, the writer? He always follows Eren around. He’s parked outside Eren’s house a lot. We’ve also seen him follow Eren to your place a few times and hang out outside until he leaves. The second Eren heads home, he pulls away from the curb.”

“He’s at work with him during the night shift a lot, too,” Connie cut in. “We pass by at all hours and he’s hanging out in there with Eren. We figured they were just friends, but...” The other frowned. “He got pretty banged up a few months back. Bruises and cuts and stuff.”

“I thought he got into an accident,” Sasha insisted, still continuing with that obnoxious slurping.

Jean actually reached out and snatched the drink out of her hands in annoyance. She just stared at him like he’d murdered a cat in her presence, but he set the drink down on the hood of his truck. He’d give it back to her when they were done with this conversation.

“Look, I don’t know if it’s actually happening, but your comments about him following Eren around are making me think that it is.” He looked around, ensuring nobody was nearby, then leaned in a bit. Connie and Sasha shifted closer as well. “He came home a while back with some ligature marks on his wrists, like he’d been restrained after being missing all day and ‘losing his phone’.” He put air quotes around the last three words. “That same day, he leaves the house in the middle of the night, and comes home the next day with Levi, claiming he got into an accident.”

“You think he wasn’t in an accident?” Connie asked.

“Look at his injuries. None of them fit with the type of accident he claims he was in. He was covered in bruises and had tons of little cuts all over the place. That’s not really consistent with an accident unless his car went toppling down a hill, and that’s really hard to do here. On top of that, since his accident with Annie, Eren is a super conscious and safe driver. He says someone else hit him, but the only place a collision could’ve happened from Levi’s to his place is at the corner of Rose and Main. I went out there the same day we found out about the accident, and I didn’t see anything. No glass, no skid marks, nothing. And today I go see him at work and he’s got bandages around his wrist, not to mention that one time he went to bed totally fine and woke up with an injured foot. He could’ve snuck out of the house and gone to see Levi.”

Connie and Sasha shared a look. Jean was used to people not listening to him or thinking his theories were insane, but the way they were looking at each other made his stomach twist uncomfortably, because it looked like they believed him. It looked like what he was saying made sense to them.

“So you think they’re dating and that this Levi guy is abusing him?” Connie asked slowly, to be sure he understood.

“I don’t know, I mean, maybe? Based on everything I’ve seen so far, with Eren getting injured and just being generally jumpy and evasive lately... It’s suspicious. And weird. And now you’re saying Levi follows him around town? That guy is stalking Eren, and I don’t like it. My friend is getting hurt, and every time I try and talk to him about it, he changes the subject or insists I’m being stupid.” Jean patted his laptop bag. “Evasion is one of the signs of an abusive relationship, complete with being jumpy, flinching whenever the other person is around, cancelling plans last minute, and the obvious physical injuries, _all_  of which Eren’s been doing the past few months. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but so far, Eren hasn’t really given me much to go on other than he’s being abused and doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“Didn’t they go on a date recently?” Connie asked with a frown. “I feel like Mikasa mentioned that.”

“So because he took him out for a fancy dinner, that means he isn’t abusing him?”

Connie made a face, conceding Jean’s point.

“Maybe he doesn’t know how to talk about it,” Sasha offered. “Or he’s scared saying something will make it worse. Or he thinks no one would believe him.”

“ _I_ would believe him,” Jean insisted.

“I would believe him, too.”

Jean was positive his entire body had just turned to ice at those words and he stood frozen beside his truck, feeling ready to vomit. Connie and Sasha had paled, but none of them moved as footsteps slowly headed towards them until Levi was standing right beside Jean, looking at the other two.

“Friends of yours?”

Swallowing hard, Jean offered the smallest of nods. “Mmhm.” He didn’t trust his voice to say more than that.

Nobody said anything for a long while, Connie shifting his weight awkwardly and Sasha coughing. Jean just held the strap of his laptop bag in both hands, clenching them tightly and staring at the ground. How much had Levi heard? It couldn’t have been much, probably only the tail-end of Sasha’s comment and Jean’s insistence that he would believe anything Eren said. There was no way he knew what they’d been discussing.

“You come here often?” Levi asked. Jean was forced to glance at him to see who he was talking to, and he felt the ball of anxiety in his stomach tighten when he realized it was _him_.

“Yeah.”

“I’ve seen you here a lot. Coffee isn’t good for you.”

“You obviously come by a lot too, if you know how often Jean’s here,” Connie said, making Jean want to kiss him.

“I grab tea before my shift at the store or if I’m out and about.” Levi’s gaze had shifted to Connie, and Jean saw him take a small step backwards. “I didn’t catch your name.”

Silence.

“Well,” Levi said after a long, awkward silence that lasted well over three minutes, “this has been educational. Enjoy your afternoon. Jean.” He nodded to Jean, then turned and headed towards the front entrance of the coffee shop, disappearing inside.

Jean had to lean back against his truck to stop from falling over, his legs feeling shaky and one hand coming up to rub at his face.

“That guy... that guy is... I don’t even...”

“Yeah,” Jean said, interrupting Connie’s rambles. “Join the club.”

Connie’s eyes were wide and Sasha looked ready to wet herself. Jean reached back for her drink and held it out for her. She took it and gave Connie a clear ‘let’s get the fuck out of here!’ look.

“We’ll help keep an eye on Eren for you,” Connie promised, taking a few steps backwards. “If things get worse, maybe consider going to his parents. Or Nile.”

Jean nodded. “Thanks. I appreciate it. I’m gonna make a couple calls. I just hope Eren admits the truth before anything bad happens to him.”

* * *

One of these days, Levi was going to disconnect his phone, his editor be damned. The only reason he had the damn thing was so that his editor could touch base, which was irrelevant at this point since he’d already sent the completed manuscript to them and they knew if they had anything to say they could email him.

As it stood, the phone wasn’t relenting and it was forcing Levi to get up out of bed to hunt it down since the one beside his bed was broken. He wanted to ignore it, but it occurred to him that his cell phone was dead and it had been a few days since he’d shown signs of life to anyone outside of Shiganshina.

Wandering down the corridor in search of the phone, he found another empty base and decided he really needed to stop wandering away with them. He instead headed down to the first floor and answered the one in the hall. It had to be Erwin. Only Erwin knew he didn’t have a voicemail machine on his landline and would keep it ringing long enough to drive a saint to murder.

“What now, old man?” he demanded, annoyed.

_“That’s rude of you. I was just making sure you were still alive.”_

“I’m alive.” He hung up. Turning to head back for the stairs, he sighed when the line began to ring again. Looking over his shoulder at the phone, he wondered if Erwin would get bored enough to stop calling but then remembered he sometimes worked from home and had all the time in the world. It would be more trouble than it was worth to let the phone ring, particularly since he needed sleep right now. His brain was still over-panicked about what had transpired the night before, and all he could smell even now hours after his departure was Eren’s blood. On top of that, he also had Jean to deal with, and he still wasn’t sure how to go about fixing _that_  particular problem.

Grabbing the phone again, he put it back to his ear and snarled the word, “What?”

_“Something clearly happened. What is it?”_

Levi didn’t want to discuss it and, were this anyone else, he would have hung up again. But this was Erwin, and he was actually doing research for him in his free time. And also, Erwin had earned his respect, so it would be ruder than usual for him to hang up a second time.

“It’s getting worse,” Levi said finally. “Whatever’s after Eren. It’s becoming more aggressive, like it has a deadline it’s approaching.”

_“Does he knows that?”_

“No, I’m not telling him what it means. But it’s coming after him when he’s awake, now.”

Erwin was silent for a moment, and Levi could practically hear the gears in his head turning. Levi had some ideas, but he wanted to know what Erwin thought.

_“It’s unlikely to be a Trickster at this point. I’m leaning more towards Casters, but it could also be Faes.”_

“I was thinking the same thing.” Levi leaned against the edge of the hall table, crossing one arm across his chest. “If it was a Fae, it wouldn’t be this aggressive. I think it’s a Caster, so now the only thing to figure out is who it is and what they want with Eren.”

_“I might have a lead on that. I got in touch with a friend near Sina. Historian, lots of connections. He’s got the largest history database in the country, spans back centuries. He’s looking into Shiganshina for me, and I gave him your name along with Eren’s. He should have something for me sooner rather than later, seemed pretty excited about the whole story.”_

Hearing that annoyed Levi because it meant that he was telling more people about the weird relationship between himself and Eren. He understood the fascination, but the more people knew, the more danger Eren was in. Levi was having a hard enough time keeping an eye on him right now, he didn’t need him having other wolves dropping by.

“If it’s a Caster, I need to move fast. You know they always have an endgame and this one is clearly getting impatient.”

_“I’ll touch base with my contact again. You’ll be the first to know if I hear anything.”_

“Right.” He started to hang up, the conversation clearly over, then paused and brought the phone to his ear once more. “Hey Erwin?”

_“Hm?”_

“Thanks.” He hung up.

* * *

Levi had never missed the city so much in his life than the mornings where he woke up to birds chirping annoyingly outside his window. He was used to city traffic and car alarms. Those, for some reason, never woke him up. A tiny little bird chirping in a nearby tree though, that somehow always seemed to bring him back to consciousness.

Rolling over with a grunt, he opened his eyes and found fingers right in his face. Sitting up, he stared out at Eren, who seemed to have obeyed his request and remained outside the cage, which would’ve been fine if his arm wasn’t _in_  the stupid cage! But it looked like it had been all right, so he tried not to get mad at him for it.

Inching closer to the bars, he checked Eren’s wrist and saw red peeking through the bandages. When he looked at his other wrist, the one currently handcuffed so he didn’t aggravate his injured one, he let out a curse when he saw it was raw and bloody, like his right wrist. That meant he’d tried to leave again and the wolf had managed to stop him.

Evidence of that were the burns on Levi’s cheek and stomach. He’d probably been sleeping closer to the bars so Eren could touch him. Which also explained the hand in the cage.

Being mindful of the silver, Levi reached slowly between two bars and brushed some of Eren’s hair off his forehead. He looked disgusting, drooling all over his pillow and snoring softly, but it was still somehow also endearing.

He suddenly felt a burst of fear in his chest at the thought of losing him. Of Eren just walking out one day and never coming back. He hoped the historian Erwin was speaking to would have some news for them sooner rather than later. Evil had a way of leaving its mark, so Levi was fairly confident they would find something eventually.

If not the actual source, then at least what they were dealing with. It was hard to tell with just the fascination the evil being had with Eren. So far it wasn’t causing him harm, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to. It was calling to him, which meant either it needed Eren to come to it himself, or it couldn’t get to him and needed Eren to make his way to them.

Levi was going to let that happen over his dead body. Now that he had him, _really_  had him, the thought of losing him was suffocating. He’d never considered himself a romantic, but something about Eren was just... _right_. He was everything Levi had never known he wanted, or needed, and just imagining losing him set his heart beating double time.

He could hear a faint buzzing sound coming from somewhere upstairs and it took him a few seconds to realize it was probably Eren’s phone. He didn’t want to wake him yet so he retreated his hand and stood silently. Exiting the cage, he grabbed his jeans and yanked them on before rearranging the blanket over Eren’s sleeping form and heading up the stairs. He figured he would make breakfast while he waited for the brunet to wake up, but he’d have to leave for work soon.

When he got to the kitchen, Eren’s phone was still ringing. Or, to be more precise, it had stopped ringing and then started up again. Knowing it wasn’t any of his business, Levi was ready to ignore it before wondering if it might not be an emergency. Whoever it was had called over three times since Levi had woken up and he worried something might have happened to his family.

Then again, Levi would’ve sensed it since he was fairly in-tune with Eren’s family and their well-being, but he wasn’t like that with Mikasa. It was entirely possible something had happened to her.

Debating only for a few seconds, he strode across the kitchen to the bathroom in the hall, bending down and digging through Eren’s bag until he found his jeans, yanking his cell phone out of the front right pocket. A picture of a horse neighing flashed on the screen and Levi didn’t need to be a genius to know who that was.

“He’s sleeping,” he said into the phone.

A long silence followed this statement before Jean spoke.

_“Look man, I don’t know what your deal is, but when I call my friend, I expect **him** to be the one to answer.” _

Levi was perfectly aware of Jean’s opinion of him. He’d been close enough to overhear his concerns the day before when he’d been speaking to the shaved-headed kid and the girl who ate too much who were always hanging out on Jean’s roof. He didn’t know what, exactly, the other man thought he was doing to Eren, but he was positive Levi was hurting him. Something that was going to be hard to deny given Eren was now going to go home with a _second_  injured wrist. Mikasa may understand to a degree, but even she was going to begin to question what happened at Levi’s house. As much as he hated it, perhaps it would be best for Eren not to spend the night anymore.

Just thinking it caused him a great deal of stress. Not to mention he had no idea how the wolf would react if Eren suddenly started sleepwalking in the middle of the night and he wasn’t within eyesight. He supposed he’d find out that night, given Eren would be at work.

Something else that was causing him a lot of stress to think about.

“I said he’s sleeping,” Levi said, voice arctic. “Unlike you, I can tell he needs to sleep and don’t like waking him up when a horse is neighing annoyingly because it doesn’t like being ignored.”

_“I’m not being ignored! Who’s being ignored? **You’re** the one being ignored!”_  Jean seemed to realize the absurdity of his own words because he hastily continued before Levi could say anything. _“What the fuck is your problem with me, anyway? What have I ever done to you?!”_

“The same I’ve done to you, except I had the decency not to break into your home.”

Silence.

“I understand that you’re worried for your friend, but I’m not the one you should be worrying about. I want to protect him, which is more than I can say for everyone else in his life.”

_“Excuse me? Where do you get off?! I’ve known Eren my entire fucking life, asshole! You’ve known him for, what, three months and suddenly you know him better than me? Get over yourself! I’m coming to pick him up, and he better be in one fucking piece when I get there!”_

Levi had to be very careful not to clench his hand because it wasn’t his phone he’d be breaking, it was Eren’s. Jean had already hung up, and Levi trusted he would hold true to his word and show up. He had to wake Eren up, uncuff him and treat his new injury before Jean got there.

Tossing the phone onto the counter harder than intended, he rushed back to the basement and descended the stairs quickly. Moving to Eren’s side, he bent down and gently took his shoulder, shaking him once.

“Eren.”

“What?!”

Levi jumped when Eren jerked upright on the mattress, limbs flailing and eyes snapping open. He turned to regard Levi and immediately relaxed, but the Werewolf could see his pulse beating rapidly beneath the skin of his neck.

“Bad night?” he asked, more softly than he’d planned to.

“Not great, that’s for sure,” he muttered, rubbing at his face with his free hand.

“We need to get you dressed and your wound treated. Jean’s coming.”

“Say what?”

Levi explained while he undid the handcuffs and ushered Eren upstairs. The town wasn’t that big and Jean would be there any minute. He at least wanted his wound dressed before he showed up.

They went to Levi’s bathroom once more and he got the First Aid kit out while Eren rinsed blood off his wrist. The left one didn’t look as bad as the right, but it was still fairly bad. It was beginning to bruise, something the right one had started to do later in the day the previous afternoon. It looked to be worse on the inside than the outside, though. He saw a large, dark smudge of a bruise forming on the inside of his wrist.

It made Levi sick to imagine what people thought he was doing to Eren. They probably thought he tied him to a bed and had his way with him. Not that he wouldn’t love to do that, but only ever with Eren’s consent, and never with handcuffs. He wondered if maybe he should go out and buy some padded cuffs, the kind people used for bondage. He hadn’t really anticipated this kind of a violent reaction when he’d bought the handcuffs or he’d have gotten padded ones from the start.

Levi had just finished taping the gauze down when the doorbell rang and was immediately followed by banging. Eren gave him an apologetic look and then stood, heading out of the room and towards the stairs. Levi followed at a slower pace, trying not to think murderous thoughts about Jean.

He understood, which was the most annoying thing. He could see how much Jean cared about his friend, and he could understand why he was so worried. The thing that irked him was that Jean thought _he_  was the one hurting Eren.

“Eren. Buddy. Come on, let’s go.”

“Go where?”

“I’m taking you home.”

“What? But I haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“Are you joking? Come on, let’s—what happened to your other wrist?!”

Levi had reached the bottom of the stairs now and he could see the panic on Jean’s face while he held up Eren’s left hand, inspecting the freshly bandaged injury. It hurt to see how afraid Jean was in that moment. He looked like he thought he was losing his best friend, and it was something Levi could completely understand because it would be how he felt were their roles reversed.

Eren suddenly hanging out with someone else all the time. Eren keeping secrets. Eren always coming home injured without a good reason behind it. Levi could appreciate why Jean was so terrified in that moment, and he could also appreciate how brave Jean was.

Because he knew how scary he was to the other man, but the second Jean’s eyes found him, he pushed past Eren and got right in Levi’s face, bearing down on him and pointing an angry finger in his face.

Levi wished he wasn’t so amused by the fact that he was shorter than Jean but the other still looked more terrified than him. He was practically shaking, though it could have been a mixture of rage and fear and not just fear.

“I don’t know what kind of freaky shit goes down in Trost, but in Shiganshina when bad shit goes down, the whole town hears about it.”

“You’re misunderstanding,” Levi said, managing to sound much calmer than he felt.

“Jean, I’m fine,” Eren insisted, sounding exasperated. “You don’t understand—”

“Then explain it to me!” Jean shouted, rounding on Eren. “Explain what’s happening right now! What kind of accident did you get into that caused your truck to disappear for over a month and injuries that didn’t coincide with being T-boned?! How did you lose your phone when you’re obsessed with that thing and would never leave it out of your sight?! Why do you always come home with injuries you can never explain satisfactorily?! You used to _talk_  to us, Eren! Mikasa called me last night freaking out that something was wrong and it took me an hour to calm her down and stop her from driving up here! The only reason she didn’t is because I promised her I’d be here first thing!” He motioned his watch. “It’s first thing! Get your shit, we’re leaving.”

Levi saw Eren’s eyes shift in his direction, as if he were asking permission. He wished he hadn’t done that, because Jean rounded on him looking murderous. As if he thought that Levi had to legitimately give Eren permission to leave.

Thankfully, Eren got the hint and sighed before saying he’d grab his things, then moved around Jean to head for the bathroom.

Jean stood in the entranceway, crossing his arms and glaring at Levi. He was glaring at his chest as opposed to his face, but at this point, Levi felt like he’d have chased him away with his gaze if the moron looked up any higher.

“What happened to your chest?” Jean suddenly asked, making Levi glance down. He’d forgotten about the burns, they didn’t really hurt anymore.

“An accident.”

“What kind of accident?”

“One you don’t need to know about.”

Jean clearly didn’t like this answer, but Eren came back before he could say anything else. The brunet had yanked some jeans on but was still wearing the same shirt he’d worn to bed. He had his bag over his shoulder and his shoes on without any socks.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Eren asked quietly, while passing Levi.

Before he could take another step, Levi caught his arm, making him turn back. He wanted to say something, but it was difficult with Jean there. He wished he’d gone back to wait in the car, his presence was a nuisance.

“Be careful tonight,” he finally settled on. Eren nodded, and when he bent down slightly, Levi half-smiled and closed the distance when it was obvious Eren wasn’t going to.

The kiss was chaste, but it was still enough. More than he’d gotten since their first real kiss, so he’d take what he could get.

“Bye,” Eren said quietly, then turned and left the house with Jean following behind him.

When the door slammed behind them, Levi felt an ache in his chest, fear mounting and he reached up to rub at it. Tonight was _not_  going to be a fun night.

* * *

_“You’re sure? I’m not fucking around about this, Erwin, you need to be absolutely sure.”_

“I wouldn’t tell you this if I wasn’t sure,” the blond man insisted, holding his phone against his ear with one hand and scrolling through the words on his screen with the other. He reached out after a moment to grab his glass of scotch, taking a sip and savouring the taste before setting it back down on the counter.

“If there was even the slightest chance of you infecting Eren, I’d insist you avoid touching him when you’re half-shifted. As it stands, everyone I’ve spoken to has confirmed that the only way to infect someone is when you’re fully transformed into the wolf.”

_“So if I were to break skin with my claws, as long as I’m still human, he’ll be all right?”_

“Are you _planning_  on breaking skin?” Erwin asked with a slight frown.

The silence that met this inquiry concerned him, but he knew Levi well enough to wait for him to speak on his own. Prompting would just earn him a snapped comment about his age and Levi hanging up.

_“I started to shift,”_  Levi finally said. _“Yesterday. While we were making out.”_

That explained Levi’s concerns. After their call the previous day, Levi had texted him a few hours later to ask about the other rare types like him. Erwin had already been looking into it, but he’d sped up his research when Levi made it clear he needed an answer _now_. This was obviously why.

“You’re worried about what will happen if things progress further.”

_“I can’t lose control with him if I’m going to turn him. Which is why you need to be **sure**.”_

“Levi, I told you. If I wasn’t sure, I would insist on caution and advise you to stay away from him when you get... excited.” He couldn’t help a small smile, especially when Levi let out an annoyed breath on the other end. “But I’ve discussed this at length with Zackly, and with other pack leaders. There are heavily documented pieces on this, and even the one from years ago who lost control is proof. She attacked many people, and none of them turned. As far as we know, only a full wolf shift will infect a human. You and Eren are free to resume your activities without any risks. Aside from the usual.”

_“Usual?”_  Levi asked, sounding almost hesitant to be asking.

“You know, pregnancy, STDs—” He cut off with a smile when Levi hung up. Erwin did the same, knowing he shouldn’t have teased, but he was kind of happy.

Levi was actually moving forward with Eren, and while he still wished he knew more about why the wolf was so protective of him, he could tell this was what his friend wanted. This was good, it was healthy for him. Levi was moving forward with his life, and that was a relief.

Erwin had been _really_  worried about him when he’d suddenly moved away to live in the middle of nowhere by himself. To know it had been because of Eren still worried him, but at least he wasn’t _alone_  anymore.

He cared about Eren more than because the wolf did. And Eren cared about him. It was nice that at least one of the members of his pack was trying to live a semi-normal life.

Truthfully, Erwin was jealous, but he was so relieved for Levi that it was overshadowing his jealousy. And with the knowledge of him not infecting Eren when he got _excited_ , it meant they could move forward in any way they wanted without fears.

Erwin had assumed that would be the case when he’d first started looking into it. As far as he knew, any infected parties were always infected by a wolf when they weren’t in control. Wolves who turned for the hell of it didn’t generally make a habit of biting or scratching humans. The rogues would kill them for fun, and the people like him and Levi who just liked to run tended to avoid humans as much as possible. Nobody had ever tested the theory of infection when a wolf in control bit or scratched a human, and he doubted anyone ever would.

Erwin wondered if he could get away with sending Levi a package of lube and condoms as a joke. He worried about being murdered if he did, but on the upside, it would be fucking hilarious before Levi drove out there to kill him.

Something to consider. Levi’s birthday was coming up.

* * *

The Jaeger family was going to be the fucking death of him. Jean Kirschstein was a good man! He was a good, kind, generous, caring individual, but he wasn’t exactly the most patient person in the world.

His patience with Eren had officially run out to the point where he was willing to sabotage his relationship with Levi if it kept the creepy author away from him. Jean didn’t know what their deal was, and at first he’d been okay with their weird relationship. Levi was a fun guy, and Eren really liked him, so it had been fine.

He had to draw the line at abuse though. Eren kept coming home injured, he kept lying about how he got injured, and he kept lying to his family about where he was going and how long he’d be out.

Jean found out from Mikasa that one of the nights Eren had been missing, he’d said he was with Jean! _He had not been with Jean_!

Of course, getting an answer out of Eren was fucking impossible right now, and he and Eren had promptly gotten into a fight the second he’d parked his truck behind Eren’s in the brunet’s driveway. Mikasa had come out to break them apart when fists had started flying and Jean had immediately left for Hannes’, cursing and spitting Eren’s name the whole way there.

Their fights never lasted long, and this one held true to their pattern, because Eren texted him around lunchtime insisting he was fine and he was sorry. Jean was still pissed off, but he’d take whatever apology he could get from the asshole.

He’d gone home to play some video games and unwind and no sooner had he been getting into the zone than his phone rang with Mikasa freaking out at him about something being wrong with Eren. That would have been fine if Eren weren’t at work and completely fine, and Mikasa was just being overprotective like she always was. She and her father were in Stohess at some kind of doctor’s function and were spending the night in a hotel so that they didn’t have to drive home in the dark. She often got antsy when she was away from Eren for too long, she’d been like that since they were kids.

The only reason Jean started feeling uncomfortable an hour after the call was because he remembered high school. There was one time where Mikasa had been away with the debate team and she had called Jean convinced that something was wrong with Eren.

He’d insisted she was imagining it even while standing in the hospital waiting for Eren’s mother because the moron had broken his arm. He hadn’t wanted her to worry and lose her debate because she was distracted. Of course he’d paid for it when she got home, but she’d also won.

Thinking back on all the times Mikasa had panicked over something happening to Eren was the only reason he pulled out his phone and dialled the store. When no one answered, the fear spiked and he whipped around to grab a pair of shoes, yanking them on one-handed while dialling Eren’s cellphone.

It went straight to voicemail.

“Don’t panic!” He insisted to himself loudly, hearing his father let out a loud snort from the neighbouring room. He’d obviously partially woken him up, but he didn’t worry about that. He just hurried out of his room and down the stairs, exiting the house and leaping into his truck. The engine roared to life loud enough to wake the whole neighbourhood, but everyone was used to it by now after years of him having the vehicle and when he drove down the street, not a single light turned on.

His hands clenched and unclenched around the steering wheel, brain going a mile a minute. Eren was fine. He was totally fine. Jean was just overreacting because of Mikasa, there was nothing to worry about. He was going to get to the store, and Eren was going to be right there sitting on the back counter like he always was.

Four minutes and twenty-two seconds later, Jean pulled into the lot and stopped the car, eyes landing on Eren’s back while the moron sat on the counter like he always did during the night shift. He looked like he was on the phone, which explained why he hadn’t answered before.

Letting out a small sigh, Jean leaned his forehead on the steering wheel, relieved that everything was okay. Still, he wanted to go in and make sure, so he climbed out of the truck and slammed the door, heading for the entrance of the store.

He was still quite a ways away when movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning to look towards the trees on the far side of the store, he could’ve sworn someone had just moved out of sight to hide from him. Frowning and wondering if it was Levi being a creepy stalker, Jean turned and strode back to his truck, grabbing a tire iron out of the back and then marching towards the trees.

He was sick of this. He was sick and fucking tired of Levi being a fucking creepy asshole who stalked Eren and made everyone uncomfortable. If Levi was spying on him in the middle of the night, Jean was going to teach him once and for all what messing with his friend was going to get him.

Whacking tree branches out of his way with the tire iron, Jean ventured into the woods, pulling his phone out and turning on the flashlight so he could see where he was going. His eyes squinted, trying to see through the dense foliage and following the movement he was positive he was seeing in the trees.

“Come out here, you stalker motherfucker,” Jean muttered, using the tire iron to whack another branch away. Leaves and twigs crackled beneath his feet and more than once he almost lost his footing tripping over a root.

He stopped when he was a few feet in, not wanting to get lost in the woods in the middle of the night, but positive someone was spying on Eren right now. He narrowed his eyes, giving the area one last slow sweep before scoffing and turning back to the store, lowering the tire iron. He’d probably scared him off with the threat of injury.

Jean was in the process of turning off the flashlight when something snapped behind him and he whipped around, weapon raised and light rising quickly.

All the blood drained from his face when he found himself literally ten feet away from a large black wolf. Its yellow eyes glowed in the dark, piercing through the black of night, seeming to see into Jean’s very soul. A low growl escaped it and Jean stood there, staring at it in horror.

_Move!_ He ordered himself. He was frozen in place, his legs refusing to listen. _Move, Jean! Get out of here!_

The wolf took another step forward, and the way it was moving reminded Jean of a dog getting ready to pounce. The wolf was about to fucking pounce on him.

With considerable effort, he managed to jump start his body and he turned immediately, crashing back through the trees. The store. He had to get to the store! Once he was inside, he and Eren could lock the doors and call the cops!

The light from his phone bounced off the trees while he ran, the tire iron in his other hand slipping due to his sweaty grip.

He could see the parking lot. He was almost there!

His foot caught on a root and he went crashing to the ground. Pain sparked up his elbow and his vision swam, the phone flying out of his hand. He shook his head to clear it, struggling to get back up, but his head was spinning and he was struggling to get his limbs to obey.

With a loud growl behind him, he rolled onto his back, the wolf charging right at him. Covering his face with both arms, he clenched his eyes shut and waited for the inevitable.

Then, he heard the two weirdest dying words he ever thought he’d hear.

“Levi, stop!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cackled so much while editing this chapter. Like, at least eight times. Cackling. So much cackling.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

_“—kay. You’re gonna be fine. Just listen to my voice, and stay calm. Everyone is fine. Mikasa is at home and fine. Jean is at home and fine. Armin is at home and fine. Your parents are at home and fine. I am perfectly fine. I’m in my cage, probably pacing anxiously because you’re not here, but I’m fine. I promise you, everyone is okay...”_

Eren inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled, hand clenching around the phone in his hand and listening to the voicemail over and over again.

Levi had called him earlier in the day and told him to send him to voicemail, then he’d proceeded to record a calming speech for as long as the message allowed him to. Eren was grateful, because not having Levi around was really stressing him out.

More than once already he’d found himself heading for the door before the voice in his ear reminded him that everyone was fine. It was difficult to ignore the feeling of anxiousness, but somehow having Levi’s voice murmuring in his ear was calming him down.

He still wasn’t _calm_ , but he wasn’t racing for the door anymore.

He jumped when he heard a car door slam and turned in time to see Jean heading for the store, gaze on the trees to the left. Eren was both relieved and terrified to be seeing him. He was relieved because he would have some company before his phone died and he couldn’t listen to Levi’s soothing voice anymore, but also terrified because what if he went nuts and screamed at Jean that he had to get out?

Either way, having Jean around was a good thing so he hung up the phone and rubbed at his face, letting out a slow breath. The feeling was still there, screaming at him that he had to go, but he forced it down. Jean would be there any second.

Any second now.

Literally, right now.

“What the fuck, how long does it take to walk from your truck?” Eren snapped irately, knowing he was annoyed only because the panic was beginning to rise again.

His eyes swept the empty lot and he frowned, wondering what was going on. Jean’s truck was still there, so he hadn’t imagined it. Jumping off the counter, he wandered towards the door and pulled it open, poking his head out in time to see Jean disappear through the trees.

“Is he fucking stupid?!” Eren turned back and rushed through the store to the office, kicking the door open and grabbing the keys. He could feel panic mounting once more, but a part of him felt like this was real panic and not the made up panic from the evil being.

Jean had just wandered into the woods in the middle of the fucking night. Was he a complete moron?

Probably.

Rushing back to the front and shrugging off the discomfort, Eren exited the store and locked the door quickly before jogging towards the trees Jean had disappeared into. He paused at the edge of the lot, craning his neck to look into the darkness.

Opening his mouth to call out to Jean, every hair on his body rose when he heard a loud growl. A growl he recognized.

A growl that should _not_  be emanating from where Jean had just fucking disappeared into!

Throwing caution to the wind because his friend was _not_  going to die, Eren crashed through the underbrush, slapping branches out of his face and racing towards the sound of Jean’s running footsteps. He heard a loud shout, and then shuffling.

Pushing between two large trees, Eren’s eyes managed to catch sight of a light on the ground, with Jean lying on his back covering his face with both arms.

And a black wolf racing to attack him.

“Levi, stop!” Eren didn’t pause to think about what he was doing, and he sure as hell didn’t believe it was smart, but he raced forward, leapt over Jean’s fallen form and held out both hands in front of himself, watching the wolf get closer and closer.

For half a second, he was positive he was about to die, but the second the wolf got within a foot of him, it skid to a halt and then growled, pacing back and forth in front of Eren, eyes shifting between the brunet and his fallen friend.

Eren’s hands were shaking and he could feel every breath tremble in his lungs. He didn’t know what would happen if he ever got between the wolf and its dinner. It was something Levi had ordered him never to do, but the problem was: the wolf’s dinner was his best friend.

“Okay,” he said, voice trembling and hands beginning to shake even more with every growl that escaped the wolf. “It’s okay. Levi, it’s okay. We’re gonna–we’re gonna be okay. Let’s just...” he trailed off, his breathing laboured and his mind blanking.

He was beyond terrified right now. He was terrified one wrong move would have his throat ripped out. He was terrified one misstep would have the wolf pass him and kill Jean. He was terrified that he couldn’t save his friend or himself, and that Levi would wake up in the morning covered in blood beside two corpses.

He had never been more scared of the wolf than he was in this instant.

The wolf growled and started to move around him but Eren shifted, keeping Jean as out of sight as he could with his body. His hands were still extended out towards the wolf, and he wondered if it could tell how terrified he was.

“No. No, no. Look at me. Look only at me. That’s it. Okay. We’re gonna get you home now, okay? We’re gonna–we’re gonna head back to your house, okay? We’re good. We’re okay. We’re gonna go back to your house, you and me, we’re gonna walk through the woods and get back to your house and it’s gonna be fine.”

He could hear Jean’s laboured breathing behind him. Or maybe it was his own. Maybe it was both of them, who knew? All he could think about was not getting killed and protecting his friend. So far so good, but he was still trembling and terrified.

“Jean,” Eren said quietly, hearing his voice crack. “I need you to listen to me very, very carefully. I need you to slowly stand up, and I need you to back away very, very slowly.”

“Are you _fucking_  insane?” Jean asked in a voice much higher than his usual one.

The wolf growled and Eren took a step towards it, hands inches away from the wolf’s muzzle.

“Jean, you need to fucking move away _now_. Go, I’ll—I’ve got this.”

“Eren, it’s a fucking _wolf_ ,” Jean hissed, still not moving. Eren wanted to punch him. “I’m not leaving my best friend here alone with a fucking wolf!”

“Jean for once in your _fucking_  life, just _listen_  to me!” Eren snapped, moving another step closer and placing a trembling hand on the wolf’s head. It was still growling, but its stance had relaxed a little, and it didn’t look ready to attack anyone anymore.

“Shut up,” Eren said slowly, petting the wolf soothingly with one trembling hand, “and just fucking walk away.”

Silence for a moment, then he heard Jean cursing colourfully behind him. There was slow shifting, but every time the wolf’s eyes looked away from Eren, he moved to follow its gaze, forcing it to remain focussed on him.

“Do you know how crazy this is?” Jean asked from behind him. A twig snapped, suggesting he was moving away slowly, but a shuffle meant he’d picked up his fallen phone. The wolf growled, but didn’t move. “Fucking,” Jean continued. “ _Fucking_  crazy! This is fucking insane!”

“Shut up and just leave. And Jean?” Eren turned his head slightly. His friend was almost swallowed up by the darkness but he knew he was there. “Don’t tell anyone. I mean it. Do _not_  say a _word_  to anyone. I’ll call you later.”

“Eren—”

“I will call you later. Get out, now.”

More twigs snapping and then he heard Jean’s running footsteps on the asphalt. After a few more seconds, the truck roared to life and screeched out of the parking lot.

Eren and the wolf stared at each other. It was still growling, but it wasn’t looking like it was about to chase after Jean, so that was good. Still, Eren didn’t know what to do. He debated bringing it out to the store and locking it in the storage room, but he worried about walking out with the wolf. What if someone suddenly showed up? That could end up with the wolf attacking someone else.

And worse: what if Jean told someone? People would come.

People with guns.

He had to get Levi back to his house, that was the only solution right now.

“Okay,” he whispered, petting the wolf’s head and pulling his phone out to check the time. Just after two in the morning. There shouldn’t be too many people on the road. “Okay, we’re gonna get you home. Come on.”

Keeping a light hand on the wolf’s head, he slowly moved around it and took a small step, waiting for the animal to follow suit. It turned and finally stopped growling, moving to stand beside Eren and beginning to walk. It looked pissed off, but at least it wasn’t making any angry and scary noises anymore.

Eren could feel his heart slamming against his ribs, and he was still mostly amazed that he wasn’t dead. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking, but he kept one of them firmly on the wolf’s neck, fingers twisting in the soft fur while he slowly and awkwardly made his way through the dark woods.

They were terrifying at night. His eyes couldn’t adjust to the darkness and if his phone wasn’t almost dead from his constant repetition of the voicemail, he’d have used it to light the way in front of him. As it stood, he just trusted the wolf to keep him safe if anything dangerous jumped out.

Ten minutes into the walk, Eren figured he should call Jean. The wolf had calmed down, Eren’s trembling had diminished, and he was sure Jean was panicking like crazy and calling the FBI.

Pulling out his phone and checking the battery, he found Jean’s name in his phone and hit the call button. He answered before the first ring had even concluded.

_“Dude, what the **fuck**  is going on?!”_

“Did you tell anyone?”

_“I should! I really, **really**  should! Eren, what the fuck is happening! Why were you talking to the wolf as if it understood you?! And you called it Levi! Are you on drugs?! What is this?!”_

“Look, I can’t explain right now, but I promise I’ll explain tomorrow, okay?”

_“No, **not**  okay! Nothing about this is okay, Eren! Jesus Christ, you made me leave you alone with a wolf! A fucking **wolf** , Eren! Is it fucking eating you right now?!”_

“Are you stupid?” Eren sighed. “Jean, I’m okay. I promise. I _promise_. I’m fine. I will call you again tomorrow, okay? Do _not_  tell anyone about this.”

_“Eren, what the **fuck** is going on?!”_

“I’ll explain tomorrow. I promise. Just please don’t tell anyone, or the wolf will get hurt. Promise me.”

_“Eren—”_

“Jean, this is _important_. Promise me.”

He was silent for a long while, and Eren could tell he was chewing this over. After a few muttered curses and a weird half-prayer to God, Jean finally said,

_“I promise. But you better call or text me every hour on the hour or I’m calling the army!”_

“I’ll do that. Sunrise is at six twelve today, so I’ll call you then.”

_“How the fuck do you know what time sunrise is at?!”_

“I’ll call you then. Don’t tell anyone.”

Eren hung up.

This was a nightmare. This was a fucking nightmare. He didn’t know what to do other than to tell Jean the truth, but he couldn’t do that without talking to Levi. Shit, he was going to be pissed, but in Eren’s defence, none of this was his fault. If anything, it was better this way because at least Jean hadn’t died.

And thankfully, neither had Eren.

It took them almost a half hour to walk back to Levi’s. Normally, following the road, it would’ve been much shorter but with Eren stumbling around in the dark and not being entirely sure of their whereabouts, he had to rely on the wolf while making sure it didn’t run off on him.

When they neared the road they’d have to cut across to climb up Rose street, Eren turned to the wolf a little ways from the road and pointed a finger at it.

“Stay,” he ordered. He took two steps before the wolf followed and he turned back to it. “Stay! Right there. I’ll be right here, you can still see me, just—stay.”

It obeyed this time, sitting on its hind quarters, but it didn’t look happy about it. Eren just walked backwards slowly, keeping an eye on it. Once he cleared the trees, he quickly looked left, then right. Then he turned and looked up the hill that led to Levi’s house.

No cars. No people. He hoped their luck held.

“Okay, come on.” He waved the wolf forward and it obeyed, following him across the street and up the hill. Eren was exhausted by the time they reached Levi’s house, and felt like he needed to work out more because he was horribly out of shape.

Crossing the other’s front yard, still holding the fur of the wolf’s neck, he paused at the sight of the front door.

“Oh boy...”

It had been completely ripped off, similar to how it had looked the day after Erwin had chased him out of the house. It wasn’t until this moment that it occurred to him that the cage was probably also out of commission. He hadn’t been able to see much of the wolf in the darkness, but it was probably injured and burned from the silver bars.

Sighing and hoping for the best, Eren led the way into the house, carefully moving through the broken front door and into the entranceway. He hesitated before releasing the wolf’s fur, but it seemed to be doing okay now that Eren was with it so he just headed for the basement with the wolf following behind him. That door was blown off the hinges, too.

Descending the stairs ahead of it, he reached the bottom and sighed, rubbing the back of his head. The entire front part of the cage had been ripped from the ceiling, the same as it had been with Erwin. It was lying flat on the ground, leaving the basement completely open.

“Well. No more night shifts during the full moon,” Eren muttered. He turned to head back upstairs and almost tripped over the wolf before catching himself.

Looking down at it, he felt a pang of guilt at the sight of the burned, raw flesh on its muzzle, face, neck and side. It looked like it had been beating itself against the bars to get them down so it could run to Eren.

He understood. He’d been feeling the urge to get up and leave for hours. It had probably broken out and then gone to the store to be close to him. Who knew how long it had been hanging about outside before Jean had shown up.

Eren was just relieved Jean’s truck made so much noise. He could’ve lost him tonight, and the thought of that terrified him. He didn’t know what he would do, or how he would feel about Levi, if the wolf had killed his friend. It wouldn’t have been Levi’s fault, and he knew that, but it wouldn’t change the fact that Jean was dead.

Reminding himself that that hadn’t happened, he sighed and bent down a little, gingerly taking the wolf’s head in his hands and turning it a little to check the damage.

“Are you okay?” he asked it, somehow not feeling stupid for doing so. Animal or not, it was smarter than other animals because it had a human side. “Come on, let’s clean that up a bit.”

Eren shifted around the wolf and headed back up the stairs with the animal following. He went into the kitchen, turned on the light, and wet a hand towel before bending down in front of the wolf and gently dabbing at the burns.

It whined and tried to back away from him, but he just shifted forward and kept a gentle grip on its fur.

“I know, I know,” he insisted, pressing the towel to one of the injuries on its neck. “I know it hurts, but it’ll help in the long run.”

He wished he were a veterinarian. Or that he _knew_  a veterinarian. He almost wanted to call Erwin or Hanji to ask what to do, then remembered they would be completely useless because they were _also_  in wolf form at the moment.

Sighing and continuing to dab at the wounds, he felt like he was pushing his luck with the wolf when it began to growl and he finally stood, tossing the towel into the sink. Looking around, he wasn’t sure what to do given there was no cage right now. He supposed bringing the wolf up to Levi’s bedroom was the only option available. At least there was a door there, even if Levi could easily blow through it. It was still an obstacle.

Wandering back through the house, he paused at the entrance, wondering what to do about the front door, then shrugged since there was nothing he _could_  do. Heading up the stairs, the wolf followed him silently. Once he got them into Levi’s room, he shut the door and watched the wolf leap onto the bed, sniffing at the covers. Eren wondered if it recognized its own scent there. Did Levi smell different to himself when he was in wolf form?

Something to ask him, he supposed.

Locking the door, Eren stripped out of his shirt and kicked off his shoes, then headed for the bed to lie down. The wolf fell down heavily beside him once he was settled and rested its head on his stomach, yellow eyes on Eren’s face.

Pulling out his phone so he could text Jean to reassure him he was still alive, he winced when he saw the time and realized his mother was going to show up in just under five hours to an empty and locked store.

“Dad’s gonna kill me,” he muttered to himself, then opened a new text message for Jean.

* * *

The first thing Levi noticed when he woke up the next morning was that the floor was not as hard or cold as he was used to. It didn’t bother him that the floor was usually cold and hard, given his wolf form made it easy for him to ignore, but the fact that he was lying on something distinctly more comfortable was a little confusing.

Shifting, he felt what his head was on move beneath him and immediately felt anger rising in his chest. He knew what that meant, and he was going to murder Eren for it! Only one person would be stupid enough to be sleeping with him while he was in wolf form, and he was going to murder him for letting him out of the cage.

He recognized the scent of where he was. He knew he was in his room. And he could smell Eren, too, suggesting that was who he was lying on. As if it weren’t perfectly obvious.

“Eren fucking Jaeger,” he said, voice dark while he sat up slowly and glared down at the other’s sleeping form. He was holding his phone in one hand, and snoring loudly, as per usual. “Eren!”

“Wha—?” Eren jerked up and while usually Levi tried to calm down a bit before exploding, this was crossing a line.

“Are you fucking stupid?!” Levi shouted, shoving Eren so hard the brunet fell out of bed with a shout. “What the fuck is wrong with you?! You’re letting me out of the cage now?!”

“Ow,” Eren whined, rubbing at his tailbone while getting to his feet. “No, that’s not wha—”

“You can’t do shit like this Eren! I don’t care _how_  comfortable you are with the wolf! Or how fucking calm you think it is around you! Getting into the cage was one thing, but this? _This_?! Fucking _Christ_ , Eren!”

“Levi, I didn’t—”

“You are _never_  coming over during the full moon again! Or if you do, it’s _before_  I turn so I can handcuff you to something so you can’t _do_  stupid shit like this! What if I’d hurt you?! What if I’d escaped from you?! _Fuck_ , Eren! You’re so fucking stupid! I can’t believe you’d _do_  something like this! It’s irresponsible and fucking _selfish_  to—where the fuck are you going?!”

Eren had turned and walked away from him, as if Levi being pissed at his stupidity was a pain in his ass. Levi was _not_  done reprimanding him so he leapt off the bed and hurried after Eren, racing down the stairs after him and pausing at the landing when he found the other standing in front of the entrance. Eren was watching him, hands in the pockets of his jeans. Levi’s gaze shifted from him to the front door.

Or the lack of a front door.

When Eren began moving again, Levi followed wordlessly, the two of them heading down the stairs into the basement. Levi noted that door was torn to shit, too, and when he descended the stairs to the bottom level, he found the cage front lying on its side, completely ripped out of the wall and ceiling.

“You got out,” Eren said quietly.

Levi turned to him, Eren watching him closely. He didn’t look like he was waiting for an apology, but it was obvious something was wrong. Levi felt bile rising in his throat and opened his mouth to ask a question he didn’t want answered when his landline began to ring.

Eren cursed, looking around and muttering about the time before turning and running back up the stairs. Levi followed him, unsure of what was happening and caught up to him as Eren answered the landline.

“I’m still alive and fine. Sorry, I fell asleep.”

_“You fell **asleep**?! Do you know how many hours I’ve been awake?! I feel like I need to smoke a pack of cigarettes right now, and I don’t even smoke!”_

It was Jean. Even without super-hearing, Levi was positive he would’ve been able to hear him. He was shouting fairly loudly.

“Just a few more minutes, okay? I’m coming over in a few, so just hang tight, okay?”

_“I swear to God, I’m having heart palpitations! What do heart attacks feel like? I think I’m having one right now!”_

“Twenty minutes, Jean. I’ll be there soon.” Eren hung up.

“Eren.” The brunet turned to Levi. “What happened last night?”

Eren rubbed his hands together, making a face, then nodded towards the kitchen. “You should sit down.”

Levi didn’t like where this was going but he obeyed, if only to make Eren begin speaking faster. He went to take a seat at the table, Eren following suit and still rubbing his hands together, as if he were nervous.

“Obviously, the wolf broke out last night. I-I don’t know how long it was out, but around two in the morning, Jean came by the store. He didn’t come in though, I saw him heading for the trees. I didn’t know what he was doing so I followed him and when we got into the trees, the wolf was there.”

Levi felt his heart sink at those words, bile rising in his throat once more. But Jean had sounded fine on the phone. Agitated, perhaps, but otherwise fine.

“He’s okay,” Eren said quickly, obviously seeing the look on Levi’s face. “Jean’s fine, he um, he got away when I—jumped between the wolf and its dinner.”

Levi wanted to be angry at him. He wanted to shout at him that he was stupid, and reckless, and irresponsible. He wanted to insist he never do anything that dangerous again.

The words wouldn’t come. All he could think about was having almost killed Jean, having been ready to murder Eren’s best friend. But he hadn’t. He hadn’t, because Eren had been there. Because Eren had stepped in front of the wolf and stopped him. Somehow, some magical way, Eren had stepped between a wolf and another human being, and had walked away unscathed.

“Levi?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Eren said, seeming to relax a little. “I’m okay. And I’m sorry for breaking your rule. I didn’t—it wasn’t intentional. I just saw the wolf about to attack Jean and I just...” He clenched his hands into fists. “He’s my best friend. I didn’t think, I just acted. My body moved on its own. I got between the wolf and Jean, and sent Jean home.” He winced. “Which kind of... leads me to the next point in our conversation.”

“Did the feeling come again?”

“What?” Eren asked, Levi obviously derailing his train of thought.

“Did you feel the need to leave again?”

“I did. Early on in the night. I just listened to your voicemail over and over again and it made me feel better. After the whole thing with Jean and the wolf, my brain was too panicked to really think about anything else.”

Levi knew he’d broken out because of the evil after Eren. The wolf had sensed danger, and it had been so extreme that he’d broken out and gone to Eren. Jean showing up had been an unfortunate coincidence, but Levi was so thankful he was okay. Traumatized, probably, but okay.

Which made him think about the second part of this conversation that Eren wanted to have. Obviously Eren’s familiarity with the wolf wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by someone even as stupid as Jean, which meant Eren was now trying to think fast on what they were going to tell him.

“What did you tell Jean?”

“Nothing yet,” Eren whispered. “But I was a little—distracted. Last night, I mean. I said your name a few times. I don’t think he’s put it together, but he knows something weird is going on.”

Levi cursed, rubbing at his mouth. He was going to have to tell Erwin. There was nothing that could be done right now. Similar to how Eren had found out, Jean now knew. There was no way to talk themselves out of this, and even if there was, it didn’t look like Eren wanted to. It looked like he wanted a friend in this. Someone he could confide in, could talk to. Someone human who could support him through this whole ordeal.

And really, would telling someone else be bad? Levi liked having allies in this fight against the darkness after Eren. Mikasa had already proven to be useful with the sleepwalking, having someone else on their side would be a plus. Besides, the more people they had on their side, the higher the chances of them finding out what was after Eren. There were more people to protect him, which Levi was strongly for, but knew Erwin would be extremely against.

 _Fuck Erwin,_ Levi decided, getting to his feet. “Let’s go see your horse.”

“Okay.” Eren sounded nervous, but he got to his feet all the same. Before he moved though, Levi touched his arm. When Eren turned to him, he reached up one hand and pulled the other’s face closer, kissing him for a few seconds before pulling away.

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks.” Eren smiled. Then he looked down and Levi followed his gaze.

“I should put clothes on.”

“Probably.”

They had clearly gotten way too used to Levi being naked if both of them had failed to notice until that moment that he was lacking in the clothing department.

Heading back upstairs so Levi could get some clothes on and Eren could find his shirt and shoes, Levi thought about what he could put in front of his entrance while he waited for a new door. He wondered if he still had the board they’d used the last time his door had gotten blown off the hinges.

Moving to Shiganshina was turning out to be more expensive than he’d anticipated.

* * *

In some ways, Eren was glad that his phone was dead, because it meant his father couldn’t call to yell at him for having left the store unattended without a note on the front explaining why.

He’d called his mother around six to tell her an emergency had come up and he’d left the store, but he hadn’t been able to tell her what the emergency was. He’d just said it involved Jean and Levi, which wasn’t a lie, and whatever had happened after that call seemed to have worked out in his favour because she hadn’t called back before his phone died. He suspected she’d called Jean, who had thoroughly freaked out at her, and really, that was all she’d need to know he wasn’t slacking.

Still, he felt guilty, and that feeling only intensified when they drove past the store to Jean’s and he saw his mother behind the counter, working away while his truck still sat parked in the lot. It made him feel guilty, but right now he had other things to worry about.

Like what they were going to tell Jean.

“So what’s the plan?” he asked Levi, turning to look at him.

“Plan?”

“With Jean. What are we gonna tell him? That it was a really big dog with your name? Maybe we can say you were dogsitting for Erwin and he named his dog after you as a joke or something.”

“I think it would be best to admit the truth to him.”

Eren stared at him in shock, wondering if he’d heard wrong. “I’m sorry, what? Did you forget the shit I went through with Erwin when I found out by _accident_? Now you want to tell him the truth on _purpose_?! That’s not going to go over well with Jean _or_  Erwin.”

“Let me deal with Erwin,” Levi said, frowning slightly. “Jean’s been suspicious of me for a while, and it was going to cause problems sooner or later. It’s better this way. You trust him, don’t you?”

“Well, sure, but with _my_  secrets.” Eren winced. “I’m not—this is kind of a big deal, Levi.”

“It’s a small town,” he said quietly. “And Jean’s got a big nose he likes to stick everywhere. Best he finds out like this than if he figures it out himself.”

That was true, whether Eren liked it or not. Jean had already been a little bit of an asshole lately because of Levi and all the injuries Eren had whenever they were together. And it sucked, because none of them were even Levi’s fault.

Thinking of the injuries reminded him of Levi’s, and he turned to look at him, eyes on the faint burns along the skin of his face and neck. They didn’t look as bad now as they had the previous night, and Eren was a little jealous of how quickly Werewolves seemed to heal. He wished he had that ability, it would be helping with his wrists.

When he faced forward again, he frowned when he realized they were headed for Jean’s house and turned back to Levi.

“How do you know where he lives?”

“He smells.”

Eren let out a small laugh, but had to marvel at how useful having a Werewolf around was. Super-strength, super-hearing, super-smell... If the government ever found out they existed, they would have a field day trying to get them to become spies. It would be incredibly useful having people like them around in enemy territory. Especially since they could rip people’s throats out.

Happy thought, that.

“As much as I like to think that’s true, how _do_  you know where he lives?”

“I used to follow you around, remember?”

Now that Eren thought about it, he should’ve clued in to that. After all, he’d been the one to ask Connie and Sasha where Levi went when his truck showed up outside Jean’s house. Then again, he’d been gullible—or stupid—enough to believe Levi hadn’t been there for him back then.

When they pulled into Jean’s driveway, Eren let out a curse and rubbed his face with both hands.

“That’s your sister’s car,” Levi said, voice monotone.

“Yup. And that one’s Armin’s,” he said, motioning another car parked across the street.

Letting out a sigh, he climbed out of the car in time for Jean’s front door to slam open. He looked deranged when he hurried down the porch steps, eyes wild and hair every which way, as if he’d been raking his hands through it all night. He was still wearing the same clothes as the night before and the bags under his eyes made it obvious he hadn’t slept a wink.

Eren felt guilty at the knowledge that this was because of him.

He also had to wonder if this was how he’d looked the first day, too. After all, Jean wasn’t the only one freaking out about wolves, he just hadn’t been around to watch someone turn _into_  one. Or, you know, what followed with the stripping and the locked in a cage and the being chased down a hill screaming for his life.

Ah, memories.

Eren opened his mouth to say something but before he could, Jean was on top of him, hugging him so tightly it was actually beginning to hurt a little bit. His arms were wrapped around him almost protectively, and he could feel the other’s laboured breathing against his neck.

“Are you okay?”

He was once again struck by how close of a friend Jean was. No matter what they went through, he would die for him—literally, as evidenced by the previous night—and it was obvious Jean felt the same way.

“I’m fine, Jean. I promise.” He looked up and saw Mikasa and Armin on the porch. Mikasa looked relieved, as if she’d been carrying stress with her for hours and only now was able to relax because Eren was right there in front of her.

“Jean. Jean, you can let go now.” It didn’t seem like he wanted to, but after a few seconds, he released him and took a step back.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” His gaze shifted to Mikasa and Armin again. “I told you not to tell anyone,” he insisted.

“You made me leave you behind with a fucking _wolf_ , Eren, you really thought I wasn’t going to tell _anyone_?”

“I asked you not to, so, yeah, I was hoping you’d listen.”

“Well—you’re stupid!” Jean insisted maturely. His eyes shifted to the left and his face hardened. “What’s _he_  doing here? And why did you end up at his house _anyway_?”

Eren looked over his shoulder at Levi, then turned back to Jean.

“We should take this inside. Are your parents home?”

“No.”

“Good. We need to talk.”

He led the way into the house after a hug from his sister and a nod from Armin. This was more people than it was meant to be, and he could tell Levi was a little uncomfortable about it, but he didn’t say anything.

They just entered the living room and took their seats, Levi leaning against the wall by the hallway that lead down to the kitchen. Eren wasn’t even sure what to say. He was trying to determine the best way to break this to his friends, in the most logical way possible. After all, Werewolves were the things of myths so the delivery had to be perfect, or they wouldn’t believe them.

“So,” Jean said, leaning back against the window sill and crossing his arms. “What happened last night?”

Letting out as slow breath and trying to choose his words carefully, Eren opened his mouth but wasn’t able to get the words out fast enough.

“I’m a Werewolf. You were dinner. Eren saved you.”

Eren’s head snapped towards Levi to be sure he hadn’t hallucinated the words. He hadn’t. Levi was staring defiantly at Jean, waiting for his reaction. Eren didn’t need to wait, he already knew what it was going to be!

And he was right.

Armin and Mikasa shared an uneasy look that clearly read they thought Levi was crazy.

Jean burst out laughing.

This was not at all how Eren had intended this to go down. He’d had this a little bit more planned out, he’d wanted to ensure the words chosen were calm and lead into a more concrete explanation. Why had Levi said that? He’d been a lot calmer and succinct when it had been Eren he’d been telling.

“Yeah, okay,” Jean said disbelievingly to Levi. “Whatever you say. Someone’s been reading too many of their own books.”

“I write about Vampires.”

“Werewolves, Vampires. Same shit, different pile.”

Levi didn’t deem that worthy of a response, because he just turned to Eren without another word to Jean. “You remember what I said before, right? About the eyes?”

“Uh...?” He wasn’t sure he knew what Levi meant, but the other just turned and walked away down the corridor. The bathroom door opened, but didn’t shut. Eren wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean so he just turned back to his friends and sister and rubbed his face with both hands.

“Okay. I know it sounds crazy—”

“The guy is insane,” Jean insisted in a loud whisper that Levi _definitely_  wouldn’t have any trouble hearing. “A Werewolf, Eren? What is _wrong_  with him? He needs professional help, and after the stunt you pulled last night, so do you!”

“Look, it’s the truth, okay? Levi is a Werewolf and—” He cut off and whipped around when he heard a cry from behind him, jerking to his feet.

“What was that?” Armin asked uncertainly.

Eren suddenly remembered what Levi meant when he asked about the eyes. Levi had told him once that Werewolves could transform at will, and the only way to know if the man or the beast was in charge was if their eyes changed colour.

“Proof,” Eren muttered, facing his friends again and wincing at another cry from the bathroom. He hated hearing this. There was a reason he showed up _after_  the change happened.

“Eren.” Uh oh, Mikasa was using her big girl voice, which meant bad news for Eren. “I understand that you care for Levi a great deal, but what happened last night is serious. If there’s a wolf running around the area, we need to alert the authorities before it hurts someone.”

“Yesterday was an anomaly, it doesn’t usually get out. It was my fault.” Eren winced again. “This whole thing is my fault. All of it.” He looked down at his bandaged wrists, picking at one of the fraying ends. The noises from behind him had stopped and he heard panting. It didn’t sound like human panting, it sounded like an animal.

His friends didn’t seem to notice, but he knew their reactions would change as soon as Levi came out. He heard nails clicking against the hardwood and watched the others. The second Jean jerked away from the wall and Mikasa and Armin stood, he knew Levi was behind him.

Turning his head, he watched the large wolf walk slowly forward, moving to stand beside Eren. Out of habit, the brunet reached out and buried his fingers in the other’s fur. Levi turned to look at him, and it was strange for Eren to see blue eyes instead of yellow ones. He’d never seen the wolf as Levi, it was always the animal.

“You can sit down,” he said to the others, still looking at Levi. “He’s in control today. He isn’t going to hurt anyone.”

Levi sat down on his haunches and looked around the room, almost bored. Eren wondered how long he had to wait before turning back into a human. Considering how much it hurt, he was probably going to wait a little while, which meant Eren was going to be stuck with the questions.

“It’s... but it’s... he’s...” Armin seemed at a loss for words, staring incredulously at Levi.

Eren’s brain was flashing back to Erwin, and how terrifying he’d been when Eren had found out. He really hoped his friends kept their mouths shut, because he didn’t want Erwin hunting them down and killing them for knowing too much.

Mikasa looked like she was eying the door.

“Please don’t,” Eren insisted, jumping to his feet. “Please. I know this is a lot to take in, _trust me_ , I had many mental breakdowns when I first found out, but he’s safe.”

“He didn’t look very safe yesterday!” Jean countered, voice rising in pitch.

“You don’t understand, he wasn’t in control!”

Eren had to make them understand. He had to make sure they didn’t tell anyone, or turn Levi in. He had to make sure that nothing happened to Levi because he cared about him, and this had only happened because of Eren. If nothing had been after him, this wouldn’t have happened. This was all his fault. Levi moving there, being exposed, almost killing Jean. All of this was Eren’s fault.

Launching himself in front of the door, he pressed his back against it and began to speak so quickly his words were running into each other. Levi stayed where he was across the room, and it occurred to Eren that he was guarding the exit out the back.

Eren didn’t stop to consider his words this time, he just let them come, explaining everything he knew about the wolves and trying to ensure he made them understand. He wanted Jean to understand Levi hadn’t been trying to hurt him the previous night, he just wasn’t in control. He wanted them to know he was safe, that he locked himself in a cage, and what happened the previous evening was just an accident.

He told them everything Levi had told him about the wolves—leaving out personal details he’d discovered along the way, like Eld and his family situation—and even explained Erwin and Hanji. He told them about the super-hearing, which Jean looked uncomfortable about, and about the heightened sense of smell and the strength. He told them how turning into a Werewolf happened, how people got infected, how they were in packs.

Every little bit of information he’d ever been told about the wolves, he relayed to his friends, trying to make them understand that Levi wasn’t dangerous and that he wasn’t interested in hurting them.

“I promise,” Eren said, Levi having laid down some time during his long speech, “Levi isn’t dangerous, and he isn’t hurting me. This is all completely unrelated to Levi.” He motioned his wrists when he said ‘this,’ mostly talking to Jean since he was the most suspicious of all this.

Everyone was silent for a long moment, and Eren could feel his heart racing, wondering what was going to happen next. He’d run away screaming. He really hoped his friends were calmer.

Well, Mikasa and Armin would probably be calmer. Jean was likely to run away screaming.

Mikasa was the first to move, shifting off the chair she occupied and padding silently towards Levi. She stared down at him, the wolf’s head rising to look back at her.

“How do we know he’s on your side?” she asked skeptically. “The whole sleepwalking thing, he told me he was watching over you, but how am I supposed to believe that?”

“Well,” Eren said, watching Levi rise and turn to head back for the bathroom. Obviously he was changing back. He hoped the cries of pain were less frequent when he was reverting to his true form. “There was that one time he and Erwin were wolves and Erwin tried to eat me and Levi got badly hurt protecting me.” He turned to Jean. “That’s what happened to my truck, by the way. It was decimated. Erwin had to get a Werewolf friend to fix it up and it took a few weeks.”

Jean just nodded numbly.

“So, what, he turns into a wolf and then... stays in his cage or runs rampant depending on how he’s feeling?” Mikasa demanded.

“Well, no.” Eren winced. He’d mostly stayed away from the shadow that was after him, but if Levi was changing back, chances were it was going to come up now. “It’s actually, uh, a little more complicated than that.”

He pressed his lips together when a cry met his ears. It was more a whimper than a human cry, meaning Levi was still mostly wolf, but that didn’t make it any easier to listen to. He kept trying to continue, but every time a sound of pain met his ears it distracted him and he lost his train of thought. He ended up giving up and just waiting.

A few minutes later, Levi emerged from the bathroom. He looked paler than he had earlier and when he walked, he looked like he was in pain. Eren wondered if the change hurt more when it wasn’t being forced by the moon cycle. He moved cautiously, as if aware of every single shift of his muscles, and took a seat in one of the available armchairs.

“Holy shit,” Jean whispered, as if seeing Levi in human form was more proof than seeing him in wolf form. “Holy shit, this is actually happening.”

“You can’t tell anyone,” Eren insisted, looking at each of his friends in turn. They were all staring at Levi. “Seriously guys, this is-this is huge. You know that, right? You can’t tell anyone, it’s important.”

“Who the fuck is gonna believe us?” Jean demanded. He seemed to be oscillating between fascination and terror. He’d be grinning one second and then look sick and scared the next. It would’ve been relatively funny to watch if Eren weren’t so worried about what it meant for Levi.

If even one of them said something about this to anyone, it could cause problems for Levi. Big problems. He needed them to understand that.

“If you want to report me, go ahead,” Levi said, which went entirely against what Eren was thinking and made the brunet want to throw a fucking tantrum. “But just let me save Eren’s life before you do.”

That got all three of his friends’ attention. They shared a look, but it was Mikasa who spoke first.

“Save his life how?”

“The sleepwalking.” Levi crossed his arms, winced, and shifted on the armchair he occupied. He was clearly still in pain, and that really bothered Eren. “Werewolves aren’t the only Supernatural beings that exist in this world.”

“And goodbye sleep,” Armin said quietly.

Levi ignored him and continued. “There are a lot of Supernatural beings. Some good, some bad. Most of them, like Werewolves, want to be left alone. We just want to live our lives in peace without any problems. Others are more malicious and something, though I’m not sure _what_  exactly, is after Eren.”

“After him how?” Mikasa asked. Eren was surprised to realize she didn’t sound sceptical, more curious and borderline worried.

“I don’t know what it wants, but that’s why he’s been sleepwalking. It’s trying to call to him, to make him come to them. Usually he’s asleep and I can just lead him back to his room. Lately it’s been getting worse.” He glanced at Eren and the brunet found his friends all staring at him. “It’s happening when he’s awake now, and the injuries he’s sustained are from him resisting. I can only do so much during the full moon, I can’t control myself with anyone other than Eren. Keeping him safe has been... challenging. I’m hoping having you know about me and understanding the danger he’s in will mean more eyes on him to keep him safe.”

“I thought Eren said you can’t control yourself during the full moon when you’re in wolf form,” Armin insisted, proving at least one of them had been listening to Eren’s ramblings.

“I can’t, but Eren... he’s different.” It was obvious Levi didn’t like admitting it, and Eren knew it was because he didn’t have an explanation for it. “To date, he is the only person I have ever met that the wolf doesn’t want to hurt. Something I am extremely grateful for considering I was locked in a storage room with him.”

Eren wished anyone but Jean had opened their mouth after Levi had said this, but unfortunately, it was Jean.

“So it’s like a mate thing, then? Like, he’s your mate so you don’t wanna hurt him? That’s what wolves have, right? Mates?” He waggled his eyebrows at Eren.

“You’re an idiot,” Mikasa said with a sigh.

Levi himself looked a little annoyed. “What are you suggesting?”

“Well, you know, you’re a wolf, right? So maybe you’re not interested in hurting Eren because he’s your mate.” He turned to Eren then. “Hey, has he tried to like, hump you or anything while in wolf form.”

“Oh my God.” Eren couldn’t believe this conversation was happening. He wanted to throw Jean through the window. “I should’ve let Levi eat you.”

“What? It’s a legitimate question!” Jean insisted, looking at everyone in turn. “Levi’s a wolf, it’s a perfectly acceptable question!”

Evidently, Levi disagreed because he stood and moved to where Jean was standing, getting right in his face and narrowing his eyes.

“I am not an _actual_  wolf. I am a human being, who happens to turn into a wolf. I don’t have mates, I don’t go into heat, I don’t have ruts, I don’t howl at the moon. I’m a human, and I can occasionally turn into a wolf. That’s. It. Get your head out of your ass before it gets stuck there.”

Jean had learned the art of not looking Levi in the eye, because he was still grinning as if this entire conversation was hilarious. It really wasn’t to anyone but him.

“But how can you _know_? Maybe Eren is your mate, and that’s why you’re protective and don’t wanna eat him!”

“That isn’t how this works. I’ve had a fiancé before, and this protectiveness was never as extreme. On top of that, I’ve been in love before now and have had people I’ve cared about. I’ve attacked all of them. Every. Single. One. Eren is the only one I haven’t attacked, and him being my ‘mate’ is not the reason why.”

“Either way, it’s fucking awesome. You should’ve seen him last night. He was so badass, jumping in front of me like that, reprimanding the wolf, it was sick!”

Jean had moved out of the terror stage permanently, it seemed, and Eren didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Especially because he kept asking weirdly inappropriate questions that made Eren want to strangle him.

Thankfully, Mikasa took off her shoe and hit him over the head with it rather violently to make him shut up. Eren and Armin were the only two who looked concerned for his well-being. Jean was too busy cursing and holding his head and Mikasa and Levi were returning to more reasonable topics of discussion, mostly centering around Eren.

He didn’t like how much they focussed on him, but he could understand it, too. After all, everything that was happening right now was because of him.

“So we don’t know anything about this mysterious person after Eren?” Mikasa asked, scowling. “Is there no way for us to let him walk to wherever he’s trying to go? I know you mentioned before that this concerned you, but we would be four people. Besides, couldn’t you sniff him out?”

“It depends on what we’re up against,” Levi insisted. “If it’s a Fae, I wouldn’t be so concerned about it, but if we’re against a Caster, that’s a different story entirely.”

“Are Casters more powerful?” she asked with a frown.

“Not necessarily, but they’re more dangerous. Faes are usually just looking to have a laugh, but Casters generally have a purpose behind why they do anything. I feel more inclined to believe this is a Caster, and if it is, whatever they want from Eren isn’t anything good.” Levi’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not interested in letting him wander away asleep. Whatever feelings I have for him, it’s clear that my protectiveness goes into overdrive with him.”

“We should tell someone,” Armin said quietly. “Your parents, the police.”

“Tell them what?” Levi asked dryly, turning to him. Armin paled when he found himself being stared at by the Werewolf but he held his gaze. “That some evil magical being is after Eren? No one will believe you.”

“They’d be more inclined to if you turned in front of them,” Mikasa argued.

“No.” Levi shook his head. “There are rules against this kind of thing. Eren wasn’t supposed to know, and the fact that he was allowed to live after finding out Werewolves exist is already a rare thing. Having more people know is asking for trouble.”

“ _We_  know now!” Jean insisted, sounding horrified. “Are you saying we’re gonna die?!”

“I won’t let that happen.” The look he gave Jean seemed to suggest, ‘as long as you stop being annoying about it,’ but he had the decency to keep those thoughts to himself. “This is a big deal, but the more people know, the more dangerous it becomes. For all of us. We don’t know who we can trust, and the last thing I want is us telling the wrong person and having Eren go missing. I’m not saying I don’t trust your parents,” he said quickly when Mikasa went to open her mouth, “but if they tell someone in hopes of helping Eren, it might alert whoever’s after him that we’re working on a plan to keep him safe. It’s better for us to just keep this as small as possible.”

Eren didn’t like being talked about as if he weren’t there. Figuring now would be a good time to call his dad, he excused himself and went to find Jean’s landline in the kitchen. He picked up the receiver and took a deep breath, knowing this conversation was going to feel much more dangerous than jumping in front of a charging wolf.

It was going to be a really long day.

* * *

To say it had been an odd day would be an understatement. Odd didn’t even come close to describing the day that they had all just had, but when evidence was staring them in the face, it was hard to pretend it wasn’t happening.

Levi had turned into a wolf in Jean’s bathroom. Eren’s boyfriend had turned into an animal.

Mikasa wished there was a handbook on how to feel for a situation like this, but sadly, there wasn’t. All she had was her own brain trying to calmly reassure her that everything she knew about the world hadn’t just gone up in smoke.

It was proving harder than she’d anticipated, but she was doing her best. She knew she would have a chance to talk to Eren privately later, but a lot of what had been going on made sense.

It was all entirely insane because, Jesus fucking Christ, _werewolves_ , but it made sense.

She was in the middle of making herself tea to try and calm her frazzled nerves over the day’s events when the front door opened. Normally this wouldn’t cause her any concern, but she could hear the hurried steps coming through the house, and when she turned, her mother walked into the kitchen, looking sick with worry.

“Mikasa.”

Instantly, panic rose and she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to Eren. Surely Carla wouldn’t look that concerned for anyone other than Grisha or Eren. She’d spoken to Grisha moments ago to try for damage control since he was still extremely pissed at Eren for bailing on the store in the middle of the night, so it had to be Eren.

“What happened?” she asked, ready to murder someone if harm had come to Eren. Her mind immediately went to the evil being Levi had mentioned and she wondered if they were too late, if he’d waited too long to tell them, if Eren was _gone_.

“Mikasa, he talks to you.” Her mother was in front of her instantly, still holding her car keys in her right hand and her purse slung over her shoulder. She reached out to clutch at one of Mikasa’s with both of hers, looking panicked. “What’s happening with him?”

“Is Eren okay?” she asked immediately, the panic still rising.

“I don’t know, I was hoping you would.” Carla looked disappointed and worried. “He hasn’t spoken to you? Hasn’t said anything? Mikasa, his wrists look terrible! I don’t understand what’s happening, but it’s not normal for him to get all of these injuries without admitting what idiotic thing he’s done to get them!”

Mikasa wanted to relax at her words, because she was worried about something that had already been explained, but it was hard to relax entirely. Carla was so _worried_  about her son, about what was happening with him. She was exactly how Mikasa had been twelve hours ago, thinking about Eren and the secrets he was keeping.

In that moment, she wanted to tell her. She wanted to admit everything she’d found out, about Levi, about the injuries, about the sleepwalking, everything. She wanted to put her mother’s mind at ease by explaining what was going on, and while she would still worry because of the evil after him, she would at least be _informed_.

The words were right there, on the tip of her tongue, but they wouldn’t come out. If she told Carla, Eren would never forgive her. It was something he and Levi had stressed. People didn’t know about Werewolves, and it had to stay that way. They couldn’t just go around _telling_  people that they existed, it was dangerous.

People would talk, they wouldn’t understand. They would get hurt. Wars between humans and Supernatural beings would start, panic would spread. Already keeping Jean’s mouth shut was going to prove difficult, but they’d manage. He was smart, and Levi had threatened to kill him, so they were likely going to be okay on that front.

Levi had also mentioned he worried about Carla. If she knew about the danger, she might make things worse. Maybe she would be a suitable substitute to the thing that wanted Eren. Maybe she would sacrifice herself to save him. Eren had people watching him, protecting him. Carla had no one, and if she found out and went off to do something stupid, no one would know. If they had to split their efforts to protect them both, it could mean losing one of them.

There were hundreds of reasons to admit the truth to Carla, but a thousand more to keep her mouth shut.

That was the only reason she stared at her mother, chest aching at the worry and confusion on her face, and said, “I’m sorry, he hasn’t told me anything.”

Carla’s shoulders sagged and her head bowed. Her hands began to tremble, clutched around Mikasa’s.

“It’s not Levi,” she said quietly.

“I know that,” Carla admitted. “I know it’s not. I don’t know _how_  I know, but it’s… Levi still has tea with me. We still talk, just not about Eren.” She looked up at her, eyes almost desperate. “You would tell me, right? If something was wrong?”

Mikasa hesitated. “Of course. I know he’s been fighting with Annie, maybe—”

“It’s not about Annie,” Carla insisted, shaking her head. She released Mikasa’s hand and threw her arms around her, hugging her tightly. “I love you, Mikasa. I love Eren. If something is wrong, please, _please_ , you _have_ to tell me. I don’t want either of you getting hurt.”

Her arms stayed at her sides for a moment before Mikasa finally lifted them to hug her mother back, feeling terrible. “We’re both fine. I promise.”

 _For now,_  was dancing on the edge of her brain, but she didn’t think she should be telling her mother that.

* * *

Erwin felt exhausted. He felt so exhausted that it was a struggle just to get up off the barstool at the kitchen counter to go _into_  the kitchen to get food. He always felt the pain of the change after the third night. It was an ache in his bones that made it difficult to move, which was why he always tended to call in sick or schedule vacations the day after the last full moon back when he couldn’t work from home.

He preferred this schedule better. More ideal, and it suited his condition.

Shuffling towards the fridge, he hesitated before pulling it open, then switched course and opened the freezer instead, yanking out a bottle of vodka. It was days like today where he missed Levi. Usually the grumpy dick would show up to raid his liquor cabinet and his fridge, but would secretly also be there to make sure Erwin was doing okay in his old age. It wasn’t that Erwin was much older than him, it was just that his change had happened later in life, and as discovered through research and other pack leaders, the older someone is when the first change hits, the harder it is on the body.

Sitting back down at the counter, he sighed and uncapped the vodka, taking a sip right out of the bottle. Levi would hate that, but he wasn’t there and what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

Pulling up his email once more, he tabbed through a few different windows and responded to one individual, thanking them for their assistance. He felt a little bit like a detective or a private investigator, looking into all this stuff for Levi. Normally Levi would do it himself, and Erwin would help, but he could tell how much time watching over Eren took and he couldn’t make Levi choose between research and Eren.

Eren would win anyway. Besides, Erwin didn’t mind.

He was about to take another sip of the bottle when an alert popped up at the corner of his screen. He hastily put the bottle down and opened the email. It had one of those “important” exclamation points, along with an attachment, and was from his contact in Sina. Considering he was a Shapeshifter and knew the whole reason Erwin was looking into this, an email indicating urgency was a big deal.

Reading the header, he pulled the computer closer, eyes shifting back and forth along the screen while he read. The colour drained from his face and his eyes widened the more he read. By the time he got to the bottom, the words of urgency at getting Eren away from Shiganshina _now_  were in large bold letters.

“Shit.” Erwin pulled out his cell phone and immediately dialled Levi’s number, standing quickly and ignoring the ache in his knees. He moved through his apartment, trying to find his keys.

The phone rang. And rang. And rang. He checked the time on the stove. It was past eleven at night which meant he was probably with Eren if the brunet had the night shift.

Pulling the phone away from his ear, he hung up and instead tried his cell phone. It went straight to voicemail.

“Shit!” He pulled the phone away and called Hanji instead, finding his keys and hurrying to get his shoes on. He had to get to Shiganshina right now, otherwise there would be trouble. It’d be ideal if Levi answered his fucking phone, but for now, just getting there and getting Eren out was what mattered before something irreparable happened.

Hanji went to voicemail as well, and he thought of leaving a message, but he was heading into the elevator, so he hung up instead. He could feel panic rising in his chest and thought of trying Levi again in the car. He wished he had Eren’s number. He should’ve thought of that the last time he’d been out there. He’d programmed his number into Eren’s phone when he’d bought him the new one, but he hadn’t thought to take the number down himself. Maybe he could find the store’s number online and call that.

It wasn’t that he was extremely worried for Eren, though he did have some concerns for the boy. His bigger concern was what would happen to Levi if something happened to Eren. In a way, having them meet was a curse because it would destroy Levi if anything happened to him. In another way, it was nice that Levi finally had someone to help him through the loss of Isabelle.

Entering the parking garage, he hurried towards his car, going back to his contacts to try Hanji again. He stopped outside the driver’s side, hitting the call button and putting it to his ear.

Movement flashed behind him in the window and he started to turn around when his vision went black.

The phone dropped from his hand as Hanji’s voicemail picked up again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this chapter is short... sorry.


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Buffy the Vampire Slayer (c) Joss Whedon  
> Supernatural (c) Eric Kripke  
> Harry Potter (c) J.K. Rowling

He was a smart, smart man. In fact, he was almost willing to bet he was a borderline genius. If anyone asked, he would say he felt like a borderline genius, and he was sure if he was ever tested, that fact would be proven.

This was why Jean was sitting in the back corner of Hannes’ where his back was to a wall and there was literally zero risk of _anyone_  coming up behind him. He had learned his lesson. People kept sneaking up on him and looking at his screen, but what he was looking up today? No, today he had to be more careful. He didn’t want anyone looking over his shoulder.

Though most wouldn’t put much thought into it, if whatever was after Eren happened to walk in, they would know immediately why Jean was looking these things up, and he didn’t want to put a target on his back.

Eren was his friend. His _best_  friend. He loved him like a brother, and he didn’t want anything to happen to him. He didn’t care what he had to do to keep him safe, he would do it no matter what. This was why he was in the process of looking up everything he could about magical beasts.

He’d started with the obvious: Werewolves.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Levi, but—okay, maybe he didn’t trust Levi _entirely_. He was just a little worried about everything, and considering Levi had almost _killed_  him, he wanted to be prepared the next time.

He’d had a conversation with Levi since the pow-wow in his living room, and Levi had actually apologized for almost killing him. He had seemed to be genuinely sorry about it, and Jean liked to think that Eren was being honest and he legitimately hadn’t been in control. Still, Levi was strong, and scary, and a fucking _Werewolf_. He was on their side for now, but what happened the day he wasn’t? Jean wanted to be prepared.

So he was looking up what could harm or kill a Werewolf. There was the obvious, which was silver. Jean already knew that one, and all it really mentioned on the site he was looking at was that silver bullets would kill them. Levi had already admitted that regular bullets killed them, too, so that wasn’t exactly a huge revelation about the whole silver bullets thing. But silver _did_  hurt them, so that was good to know. Jean planned on finding some to keep on him around the full moon so he could throw silver at Levi and run away if he ever escaped again.

Everything else was a little less certain. He’d been going through a lot of sites to try to compare common items since that was more likely to be realistic than not.

A few sites had mentioned that mistletoe was deadly to Werewolves, but most of those sites had been related to games and what to have available during Werewolf battles. Same thing with Rye grains.

He’d also read about the ash from a random type of tree, but he’d never really heard about it before, and every time he tried to go into depth about it, he just got papers on how humans were killing the planet and deforestation was destroying ecosystems. Not exactly useful.

One thing that kept cropping up that he’d never heard of before was something called wolfsbane. It came up the most often across the sites, and though it was on all the game sites, it also appeared on some mythology sites, so he felt more inclined to believe there was some validity to that claim. He hadn’t ever even heard of it before, but apparently it was some kind of purple flower. It was meant to be deadly to Werewolves if ingested. As far as he could tell, it was only if it was ingested, but breathing it in could incapacitate them for hours. Large quantities could kill them, but only if the type inhaled was potent. If a Werewolf got a huge blast of pure wolfsbane to the face, it could kill them.

There wasn’t much else that he could look into, as far as he could see. He wished he could just _ask_  Levi, but that would be a weird conversation.

“Hey Levi, what’s out there that can kill Werewolves?”

He was likely not going to get a response. He would just get a suspicious glare and then be scared to go to bed at night. Not that he _wasn’t_  currently scared to go to bed at night because, yeah, he’d almost gotten eaten by a Werewolf. But still, those nightmares would go away in time. Eren had admitted to having them when he’d first found out, but he was better now. It just took time, as most things did.

He was in the process of looking up how to save someone who got bitten in the neck by a wolf or dog when Reiner wandered over holding a coffee. He shut the laptop just in case Reiner decided to see what he was working on.

“Hey Reiner.”

“Hey.” He stopped across the table from Jean but didn’t sit. “How’s it going?”

Jean shrugged in response. Saying he was fine would be a lie, but saying he wasn’t fine invited Reiner to ask him what was wrong. He couldn’t exactly tell him a Werewolf had almost eaten him, and he suddenly felt bad for all his griping about Eren. A secret this big was hard to keep _secret_  without a few lies here and there.

“Hey, what’s been up with Eren lately?”

“Up?” Jean asked, hoping he sounded innocent enough. “He’s been fine, why?”

“Well, he and Annie have been, you know...” Reiner shrugged and took a sip of his coffee, obviously not wanting to finish that sentence. “She’s pretty bummed about it.”

“He’s tried to apologize,” Jean insisted, feeling defensive. “Eren’s literally tried to apologize but she won’t respond to his texts and she ignores his calls. You should know what he’s like, he isn’t going to chase her. If she doesn’t accept his apology, he can’t really do much.”

“I guess.” Reiner sighed. “She’s just really sad about it, and I can’t exactly help.”

“You could tell her to stop being a bitch and accept Eren’s apology.”

Reiner half-smiled at that, nodded once, then his eyes shifted down to the laptop. “What have you been working on lately?”

“Nothing much. Just the usual.”

“That being?”

“The divorce rate in North America as compared to the number of domestic abuse cases.”

Reiner let out a snort. “Always a happy topic. Why that?”

Jean shrugged. “Why not? I once did an entire project on how fries make people happy, are you really so surprised about this one?”

“I guess not.” Reiner checked the time. “I should go, I have work. See you around.”

“Yup.”

Jean waited for Reiner to leave the coffee shop before opening his laptop back up and returning to his research.

* * *

Levi wandered slowly through the house with a cup of tea in one hand and his cell phone in the other, scrolling through the emails he’d neglected the night before while his battery was dead. Moving into the living room, he paused beside the couch, scowling down at an annoying chain letter he’d received before blocking the sender.

Shoving the phone into the pocket of his sweats, he took a seat on the edge of the couch and reached out one hand to place it against Eren’s neck. The brunet let out a groan and curled up more into the couch, burying his face into the cushions and exhaling slowly, continuing to sleep.

Levi almost wanted to tell him to just move in, the kid seemed to find his way there often enough as it was. He’d been working the night shift and the following day shift in a row as penance for having disappeared from the store without a word to anyone. His father hadn’t been pleased in the slightest, but it seemed this was the easiest way to earn his favour back. From what Levi could tell, it had worked. Eren had been at the store for nineteen hours, and Levi had stayed with him the entire time. Now that they were back at Levi’s house, they’d taken a nap and Levi, being an insomniac, had woken up hours ago. Eren seemed content to sleep longer.

He didn’t want him to. Not only for selfish reasons, but also because if Eren slept too much now, he wouldn’t sleep tonight and that wouldn’t help him any.

Levi turned to glance at his front door, hoping that the new one would show up soon. He hadn’t felt comfortable leaving the house with only a wooden board covering his entrance, but he also hadn’t ordered the door from town this time. People would start to ask questions if he kept losing the doors to his house, so he’d ordered one from Stohess to be safe. It was scheduled for arrival sometime next week, which meant he’d have to suffer through no door for a while longer.

It was a strange thing, him having to replace his door twice in only a few months. He’d lived years in Trost without any problems, and now… Well, now there was Eren to think about. It wasn’t that the wolf was breaking out, it was that things were different with Eren.

The phone in his hand began to buzz and Levi checked the caller ID.

Hanji.

He almost rejected the call before realizing that would have them calling the house, and he didn’t want to wake Eren. Resigning himself to his fate, he answered and put the phone to his ear while heading out of the living room so as not to bother Eren.

“What?”

_“Have you heard from Erwin?”_

Levi wasn’t sure how to react to this. Hanji always started their conversations by being as annoying as possible and speaking loudly enough for any Werewolf in the vicinity to hear them. To have them start off with a calm, almost normal question was throwing him off slightly.

Then he realized he hadn’t actually heard their question.

“What?”

 _“Erwin,”_  Hanji said again, sounding the name out slowly. _“Have you heard from him?”_

“No.”

He waited for Hanji to elaborate on why they were asking but the other end was silent. It was so out of character for them that Levi actually checked his phone to make sure the call was still connected. It was.

“Hanji?”

_“I have a bad feeling.”_

Levi felt every hair on his body rise at those words. It wasn’t that he believed Hanji knew anything, it was just the fact that they were worried. Hanji was the most easygoing, happy-go-lucky person that Levi knew, so if they were having a bad feeling, it was probably justified.

“Why do you have a bad feeling?”

_"I have two missed calls from him from last night while I was out. I tried calling back but he didn’t answer. I went to his house, but he wasn’t there, and…”_

Levi waited.

Nothing.

“And?” he prompted.

_“I don’t know. It smelled… off.”_

“Off?”

_“Yeah. Like… someone was there, but they weren’t there. I couldn’t identify a foreign scent, but it just… I’m just worried.”_

Levi glanced over his shoulder towards the living room where Eren still slept. He didn’t feel comfortable leaving him, what if something happened? But then Erwin… He couldn’t _not_  go. If something had happened to Erwin, he had to find him. He had to figure out what happened.

Facing forward again, Levi rubbed at his forehead with his free hand, mind racing. If he left and something happened to Eren, he would never forgive himself. Or Hanji. Or Erwin. But if he didn’t leave and something happened to Erwin, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. Both of them meant a lot to him.

His protectiveness seemed to be a little laxer at the moment, the wolf wasn’t going crazy about Eren. It hadn’t for the past few days, as if the evil knew Levi was around and wasn’t going to let anything happen to him. Did that mean it was someone that knew what Levi was?

If it was a Caster, probably. Wasn’t like they couldn’t take one look at him and know immediately he was a wolf.

And he had allies now. Jean and Armin and Mikasa. He had people who knew how important it was to keep Eren safe. He could leave Eren with them, surely. They knew how serious this was. Even if Jean was acting like this was the coolest thing since sliced bread, Mikasa was being more calm and analytical about it, and Armin seemed completely convinced that Levi was right and they had to protect Eren.

“I’ll be there in a few hours. Don’t let anyone else into his apartment, it’ll mask any scents.”

_“Sure. See you soon.”_

Levi hung up, hand clenched around his phone and scowl on his face. He didn’t want to leave Eren, but if Hanji was right… Well, even if he left and Erwin showed up, Hanji would call him and he could just turn around and come back.

Clenching his jaw, Levi turned and headed back into the living room. Eren was still snoring and drooling on the couch, looking extremely attractive. Levi didn’t know why he thought he was good looking sometimes. Feelings did weird things to people’s perception of beauty, because he should not be thinking Eren was adorable right then, but somehow that was the thought that went through his head.

Sitting on the edge of the couch, he reached out one hand to run it lightly through Eren’s hair. The brunet didn’t even react to it, sound asleep and still snoring.

“Eren.”

Nothing.

“Eren,” Levi said, raking his nails lightly against the other’s scalp.

That elicited a moan, which Levi tucked away in the back of his mind for review later. He just ran his hand through Eren’s hair a few more times, still raking his nails against his scalp. It took about two minutes for Eren to finally return to the land of the living, eyes opening to slits.

“Eren, I need to leave.”

Levi should’ve just started with that because Eren’s eyes immediately snapped open fully and he sat up. His hair was matted down on one side of his head and he had sleep lines along his cheek.

And drool.

“Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know,” Levi admitted. He didn’t elaborate and he could tell Eren wanted to ask what was wrong, but something on Levi’s face must’ve made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it so he kept his mouth shut.

“When will you be back?”

“I don’t know.” It felt like every answer he would give right then would be those three words.

Eren didn’t ask anything else. He just tried to get himself organized and went to the bathroom before grabbing his things and walking to the front door.

Levi wished he could take him with him. He would have asked if he wasn’t positive the answer would be no, but Eren was still trying to stay on his father’s good side so he wasn’t going to come even if Levi begged him.

He wouldn’t, but it was tempting to beg, just to see if maybe it would work.

“You should stay with Jean while I’m gone,” Levi said when they stopped by the doorless entrance. “Maybe Armin, too. And Mikasa.”

“I’ll be fine,” Eren said with a smile, but Levi could see how tight it was. He could see how worried Eren was, it was evident in his eyes. In the way he was shifting his weight. The way his hand tightened on the strap of his bag.

Levi didn’t want to go.

Reaching out one hand, he ran the flat of his palm along Eren’s cheek, then down his neck and along the front of his throat. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Levi promised, letting his hand linger on Eren’s skin for a few seconds before he let it drop.

Eren just nodded, leaned forward for a chaste kiss, and then left.

Levi watched him go until the truck disappeared from sight. Then, he turned and headed back into the house to get some things together.

* * *

Hanji had been right about Erwin’s place. It was… strange. From the outside, it smelled perfectly normal, like Erwin, and any other various guests. Hanji, some of the other pack leaders, that one little Italian weirdo who delivered his take-out when Erwin was too lazy to cook—which was most days.

It was once they stepped into the apartment that things were weird. Levi walked slowly through the entrance and towards the kitchen, inhaling while he went and looking around slowly, eyes narrowed.

It smelled like Erwin, but it almost smelled… _too much_ like Erwin. It was a weird feeling, something that his nose identified and his brain couldn’t quite comprehend. Of course the place smelled like Erwin, it was _his_ place, but it was something _more_. It was like someone else had entered the apartment and had then used some kind of Erwin perfume to mask their scent. It was almost overpowering.

Levi moved slowly towards the kitchen counter, reaching out to touch the bottle of vodka sitting beside Erwin’s laptop. It was warm to the touch, it had been out for hours.

Using two fingers, he pulled open the screen for the laptop and the home screen blinked back at him. He typed in Erwin’s password without hesitation and it opened on his background.

No programs were open.

Hanji appeared beside him, the two of them staring at the screen while Levi opened various programs to see if anything had maybe been closed and still had something present. Safari opened on a porn site which Levi ignored. His word document came up blank and his recently opened items were all work-related. He didn’t look like he’d opened any new folders recently and Levi checked the one labelled with Eren’s name. It didn’t have any information he hadn’t already heard from Erwin.

Moving the cursor, he opened Erwin’s emails and scrolled slowly through the list. No names jumped out at him, and only three had anything with his name or Eren’s in the subject.

Hanji wandered away while Levi checked his sent items, scrolling through a few messages and skimming them. None of them jumped out at him, and most of them were work-related.

“Levi.”

He turned and frowned when he saw what Hanji was holding, moving over to them and taking Erwin’s cellphone from their hand. It was off, and the screen was cracked.

Trying the power button, it didn’t turn on which suggested it was dead, so he stalked into Erwin’s room to find the charger. Once it was plugged in, he waited a few minutes until it would turn on and then he checked the text messages and call logs. He had a few missed calls from Hanji, one from Zackly, and another from an unknown number with an area code Levi didn’t recognize.

Most of the unread text messages were from Hanji, and the only other common texter was Levi.

Checking the call history for outgoing calls, he saw that Erwin had tried calling him last night, followed up by two calls to Hanji.

He didn’t like it. Hanji was right, something was wrong.

“What should we do?” Hanji asked quietly when it became clear Levi was on the same page as them.

Levi stared down at the phone, eyes focussed on the cracked screen. Something had happened to Erwin, of that, he was certain. The question was _what_? Was he still alive? Who had come after him? And more importantly: what had he found out to _make_  someone come after him?

“You still good with computers?”

“You don’t _stop_  being good with computers,” Hanji insisted, as if it had been a stupid question.

“Take Erwin’s laptop.” Levi unplugged the charger and handed both it and the phone to Hanji. “This too. I want you to dig. Don’t tell anyone about this.”

Hanji was about to argue, then seemed to decide that Levi was right. If anyone knew Erwin was missing, his territory would likely be under attack and Levi didn’t have the ability to protect Erwin’s territory, the pack, _and_  Eren.

“What do you think happened?” Hanji asked while following Levi out of Erwin’s room and back into the kitchen.

“I think he found something someone didn’t want him to find.”

And Levi felt like that something had to do with Eren.

* * *

Eren’s foot tapped restlessly against the floor, leg jiggling while he stared at the glass doors of the store, as if doing so hard enough would have Levi magically walk in. Which felt ridiculous.

Not the staring hard enough having Levi walk in bit, though that was also fairly ridiculous.

No, what felt ridiculous was that Levi had literally been gone for thirteen hours, and Eren felt restless. He felt weird. He felt… oddly cold.

He’d been using Levi as a heater too much lately.

“Will you stop that?” Jean muttered from behind him, seated on the back counter and scrolling through his phone. He was probably on Tumblr.

“I’m not doing anything.”

“The constant tap-tap of your foot is slowly giving me a headache.” Jean jumped off the counter and moved across the small space behind the till, turning so he could lean back beside it and watch Eren. “Are you antsy because Levi’s gone, or because you think no one can keep you safe like he can?”

“What?” Eren asked, turning to look at his friend and trying to figure out what Jean was asking. It took him a few seconds to realize he didn’t understand because it was neither of those things. “No, it’s not—It’s not you, Jean. I know you’ll tackle me if anything happens. And yeah, I don’t like that he’s gone, but he’s been gone before.”

“So…” Jean prompted.

“Something’s wrong,” Eren said, turning back to the door. “With Levi, I mean. Something happened and he didn’t tell me what it was and I’m worried about him.”

Jean said nothing to this, probably because he didn’t know what to say. Which was fair, since there wasn’t really anything for him _to_  say.

Eren just hoped he was okay. He wished he’d at least told him what was wrong instead of leaving him hanging. He knew that Levi didn’t _have_  to tell him, but knowing if it was life-threatening or just aggravating would’ve been nice. He didn’t even know if it had to do with his books, or if it was something to do with Hanji and Erwin.

Maybe there was another pack leader meeting? Maybe someone was trying to recruit Levi into their pack? Maybe a new publisher was trying to poach him? Maybe a long lost girlfriend had magically appeared out of the woodworks with a child?

The last one made Eren feel ridiculously unhappy. Not the child aspect, just the idea that some girl might show up and steal Levi from him when he barely even had him to begin with. To date, they’d done nothing more than kiss. Sure Eren ended up sleeping with Levi while the latter was naked, but that didn’t count if Eren was fully clothed and Levi was only naked because he’d been a wolf a few hours before.

“So. Werewolves.”

Eren turned back to Jean, who had jumped up onto the front counter beside the till without Eren noticing. He punched him in the arm to make him get off and Jean, being well-versed in Eren’s silent violence, took the cue and slid back onto the floor. He did move to sit on the back counter though, but that was all right. The back counter was fine to sit on.

“Werewolves,” Eren repeated. It occurred to him that he hadn’t really spoken to Jean, Armin or Mikasa at all really since the “big reveal.” It made him feel guilty, but looking back on it, none of them seemed traumatized by it like Eren had been.

Then again, Erwin wasn’t in town right now, so in his defense, he’d been stripped naked and chased down the street. He was allowed to be traumatized.

Oh, and locked in a storage room all night with a potentially deadly predator. That too.

 _And_  trapped in a truck all night while Erwin tried to eat him. _That_  too.

He was still amazed he’d managed to continue to function without therapy.

Jean had gotten off pretty easy, considering, and Mikasa and Armin weren’t even phased because they had yet to be attacked by a Werewolf.

“How long have you known?”

Eren shrugged, leaning back against the till and crossing his arms. “A while? Since the last unscheduled inventory.”

“Right. So all the injuries and the truck and everything, that’s all related to this?”

“Well, partly.” Eren shrugged again. “Some injuries are the wolves, but some are from the evil thing after me. I walked through glass while sleepwalking once. These,” he uncrossed his arms and held them up to show off his still-bandaged wrists, “are from me fighting to get out of the handcuffs I put myself in to avoid wandering away while Levi was in wolf form.”

Jean winced, as if just looking at the injuries was painful for him.

“You’re taking the whole Werewolf thing pretty well,” Eren commented, crossing his arms again.

“Well, yeah, who wouldn’t? It’s awesome. Werewolves are awesome, and now I know who to call if I need someone strong and scary to help me out of trouble.” Jean grinned, and Eren felt like he would have to remind him very kindly that Levi would likely not help him in that capacity.

“I guess.”

“Didn’t you think it was cool when you first found out?”

“Considering Erwin stripped me naked, locked me in a cage, then chased me down Rose street, following that up with trying to eat me while destroying the truck I was trapped in all night—no. No, not really.”

Jean blanched and his mouth opened and closed a few times. It almost looked like he wanted to apologize, but didn’t know what to say. He seemed pretty speechless tonight.

“Wow. Yeah, that… I mean, I barely almost got eaten, so I can’t even relate.”

“Trust me, no one can relate.” He wouldn’t ever admit to Levi that he still sometimes had nightmares about that night in the truck. It wasn’t fair to make him feel worse than he likely already did, but that terrifying night of Erwin trying to eat him was probably going to haunt him for years. They weren’t as bad or as frequent as they were before, but they still hit him every now and then.

“So, is it just Werewolves, then? Levi alluded to others, but he’s hard to read sometimes.”

“What?”

“Like, do only Werewolves exist? Or does their existence mean that we can assume all other Supernatural beings exist? Like Zombies and Vampires and shit.” Jean paled. “Please tell me Vampires don’t exist.”

“According to Levi they’re rude and unhygienic.”

“Rude?” Jean asked, still fairly pale.

“And unhygienic,” he repeated. Levi had made a point to tell him this, so he imagined they must smell terrible. Probably moreso to a Werewolf, what with the heightened senses.

“Terrific. Well, I’m never sleeping again,” Jean said, which made Eren laugh because that was basically what he himself had said, and also something Armin had mentioned.

“I think the chances of Supernatural beings coming here are pretty slim. Levi would’ve mentioned if he’d smelled any others. Apparently the less human Supernaturals are easy to sniff out of a crowd.”

“Huh.” Jean frowned, then some of the colour returned to his face and he perked up a little. “Hey, do you think Mikasa might be Supernatural?”

“What?”

“Yeah! Like, maybe she’s like, a Succubus or something? I mean, someone that hot has _got_  to have magic in there somewhere.”

Sometimes, Eren really worried about his friend. He didn’t want to think about Mikasa as a Succubus, because the idea of her molesting Jean while he slept was just a disturbing image. Not to mention he was fairly certain she still didn’t like him.

On top of that, he was confident she would’ve told him if she was a Supernatural being a long time ago. They didn’t have any secrets.

Well, they hadn’t, anyway. But in Eren’s defense, all the recent secrets were related to Levi’s big secret, and that wasn’t his place to tell her. Now that she knew, he was more than happy to go back and tell her the truth on every single lie he’d given her the past few months.

“Ugh,” Jean said, having turned to look out the window while Eren had been lost in thought. There was a car in the lot. “Ice Bitch incoming. Should’ve kept my mouth shut.”

That could only mean one person and when he turned to look at the door, Annie walked in a few moments later. Her eyes locked on Eren immediately and he winced, feeling discomfort squirming in his gut. They hadn’t really spoken since their last fight.

Well, really, Eren had tried to reconcile and she’d ignored him, so he’d stopped trying. Her being here meant she wanted to try and give him another chance to give her an apology. An apology she may or may not accept, even though she’d driven all the way out here.

“Horses belong outside.”

“Ice bitches belong in isolated castles singing about letting shit go,” Jean snapped back without missing a beat.

“Jean,” Eren insisted. He knew Annie had started it, but Jean was less prickly. Also, he wasn’t on thin ice with Jean, so he could afford to piss him off a little.

“Well,” Jean said, jumping off the counter and moving out from behind the till, “if you need me, I’ll be in the office jerking off to pictures of your sister.”

Eren knew that was Jean punishing him for choosing Annie right then, but he just sighed and waited until he heard the office door shut loudly at the back of the store.

“Can’t work without supervision now?”

He knew she was trying to make a joke about Jean’s presence, but he really couldn’t tell her why he was there. He didn’t want to drag another person into his new fucked up life.

“Just wanted some company,” he said instead, shoving his hands in his pockets and moving out from behind the counter so he was right in front of her. “So. How are you?”

“Fine.”

She didn’t ask how he was. He knew she wouldn’t. She was still pissed, and he could understand.

“I’m really sorry,” he said for what felt like the millionth time. “ _Really_  sorry. You know how much you mean to me, right?”

She just stared at him, and it made him almost convinced that she wasn’t here to forgive him and just wanted to watch him squirm uncomfortably.

“You’ve been more flakey than usual.”

“I know,” Eren admitted. “I know I have. With everyone, I promise. It’s just, you know, the double shifts at work, and the thing with Mikasa about her family, and dating Levi and—”

“What?”

“What?” Eren repeated, having lost his train of thought when she’d interrupted him.

Her eyes had hardened into shards of blue glass and it almost looked like she was clenching her jaw.

“What about you and Levi?”

“Oh, did I not tell you?” It occurred to him that they’d been fighting before he and Levi had become a thing. Were they even really a thing considering they’d barely kissed since that time in the bathroom? No, they were definitely a thing. “I’m dating Levi.”

“Really?” Her voice seemed to have darkened several shades and Eren wondered what he’d done to piss her off. “Since when?”

“Um, like, a week?”

He had never seen someone with such a neutral looking expression emanate rage before, but Annie was managing to do it. Her face was completely impassive, but her eyes blazed with fury and even her breathing seemed to be a little sharper than usual. Somehow, Eren felt like admitting he was dating Levi had royally fucked something up.

He opened his mouth to say something when the office door opened and Jean wandered out, bitching something incomprehensible into his phone. He appeared beside Eren, who really wished he’d go back to the office.

“It’s Mikasa.”

“Jean—”

“I know, I know, but she’s pretty adamant that she needs to talk to you.”

Eren hadn’t even decided whether or not to grab the phone when Annie turned on her heel and slammed out of the store. He called after her, taking a step to follow, but Jean grabbed his arm.

Between Annie and Jean… Eren hated that he could pick the favourite, but he’d already pissed Jean off by sequestering him to the office while he spoke to Annie, and Annie seemed fairly determined to be pissed at him for dating Levi.

Sighing, he chose Jean, turning to take the phone from him and putting it to his ear. “What’s up?”

_"Are you okay?”_

“Pretty sure Jean would be a little more panicked if I wasn’t.”

Jean made a debatable sound which Eren ignored.

He answered Mikasa’s myriad of questions while heading back for the till, pulling out his own phone and checking it for messages from Levi.

He had four missed calls, and seven text messages. He could easily see the progression of worry.

 **[Levi]**  
Just checking in, are things okay?  
**[Levi]**  
Eren, is everything okay?  
**[Levi]**  
Eren, I need you to call me  
**[Levi]**  
Eren you need to call me now  
**[Levi]**  
eren call me right now!  
**[Levi]**  
EREN CALL ME  
**[Levi]**  
EREN!

“I need to call Levi,” Eren said, interrupting Mikasa mid-sentence. “Sorry. Just—two seconds.” He handed the phone back to Jean and pulled up Levi’s contact, calling him and putting the phone to his ear.

 _“When I tell you to call me, I expect you to obey,”_  Levi snapped the second the line connected. _“You know something is after you, right? And I’m not there to protect you?”_

“I didn’t even know you’d called. Or texted.” He winced, realizing he should probably put his phone on vibrate instead of silent. “Sorry.”

Levi said nothing for a few moments, but Eren could hear his soft breathing over the line, like he was trying to calm himself down.

“Is everything okay with you?” he asked slowly, wondering if whatever was wrong was adding to his bad mood.

_“Not really.”_

“Can I help?”

_“No. Yes. Maybe. No.”_

Well, that wasn’t confusing at all.

_“I’m coming back tonight. I’ll stop by the store when I’m back.”_

“Okay.”

_“I need to go. And Eren?”_

“Yeah?”

_“If the horse leaves before I get there, I’ll kill him.”_

He hung up.

* * *

Levi was exhausted when he got home, and all he could think about was going to sleep. Which was what he was intending to do the second he opened his bedroom door, but all thoughts of sleep left him when his eyes fell on Eren sound asleep under the covers.

He would’ve been mad about people leaving him alone except he doubted Eren had told anyone he was alone and, in his defence, he had a handcuff around one wrist attached to the headboard. It didn’t look like he’d been trying to get out of it, either, which was a relief.

Dropping his bag to the floor, Levi kicked off his shoes while pulling his shirt over his head. Undoing his pants and stepping out of them, he took a moment to put his clothes in the hamper and move his shoes against the wall before pulling the blankets back and sliding into the bed with Eren. The brunet inhaled deeply and shifted when Levi pressed up against his back and kissed his shoulder.

Exhaling slowly, Eren let out a small sound and shifted so he could turn and face Levi, burying his face against the Werewolf’s neck.

“Mm, warm.”

“Werewolf,” he responded, wrapping his arms around Eren.

“Missed you.”

“Me too.” He tightened his hold on Eren, glad that at least he could protect _someone_. He tried not to let his mind wander back to Erwin, he was worried enough about him. He’d only come back to check up on Eren and get his new door installed, but hadn’t found out until he was halfway back to Shiganshina that it wasn’t ready yet. It would’ve been a wasted trip if not for Eren.

Scowling, Levi held the other tighter, hearing a small grunt leave him that suggested he was squeezing him too hard. He let up, but not by much. It was weird, feeling so protective of someone like this. It was something he had never experienced before, and some days he worried that Eren would continue to think it was Levi’s protectiveness that made him stay. It wasn’t just that. Yes, he was protective, but he also loved the little shit. Eren had managed to wiggle his way past Levi’s defences, and Levi still didn’t know how he’d managed that.

In some ways, it would’ve been better if he hadn’t. It would’ve been better if he was just someone Levi felt like he had to protect out of some weird sense of duty and nothing more. Having him be someone Levi actually cared about gave Eren so much power right now. If something happened to him, it wouldn’t upset Levi.

It would destroy him.

He would become a wreck, not dissimilar to how he felt when he’d first found out Erwin was missing. He was hiding it better now, but it was still a lot for him to swallow.

Erwin was missing. He could be dead. Levi didn’t believe he was, but he could be. Levi’s oldest, closest friend. The person he trusted the most. He may never see him again, and he didn’t know what to do about it. He didn’t know how to handle this.

“Levi?” Eren asked, voice thick with sleep. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. Why?”

“You’re shaking.”

Was he?

Levi glanced down and lifted one hand off Eren’s body. He supposed he was trembling a little bit. He clenched his hand into a fist and wrapped it back around Eren. He was going to find Erwin. He was going to protect Eren. He was going to kill the person responsible for all this.

They were going to rue the day they’d decided to fuck with his pack.

* * *

Jean chewed absently on a pen while leaning one cheek against a closed fist. His eyes kept trying to glaze over but he forced them back into focus and kept reading what was on his screen, clicking the next button every few minutes to move to the following page.

When he reached the end, he closed the page and went back to Google, opening the next one. He only got a few sentences in before deciding this wasn’t a reliable source and closing it immediately, moving to the next page.

“What are you doing?”

Jean almost swallowed the pen but managed to spit it out before causing himself bodily harm and whipped around, finding Armin standing behind him with a frown on his face and blue eyes locked on the screen.

“Shit, Armin, don’t you know how to knock?!”

“I did knock. And ring the bell. And called your name four times.”

Jean stared at him. “Oh.”

“What are you doing?” The blond shifted to sit on the stool beside Jean’s desk, eyes still on his screen as if trying to decipher what he was looking at.

“Research.” When Armin made a sound of understanding, he figured the other had realized that was what he was doing a split second after having asked. It was virtually all Jean ever did with his time, after all, when he wasn’t hanging with Eren or playing video games.

This topic, however, was difficult. He wasn’t sure how accurate the information he found online was, but it wasn’t like he could go to a library and find himself a Giles a-la-Buffy-The-Vampire-Slayer style. So Google would have to do. At least _some_  of this shit had to be true, right?

“Find anything worthwhile?” Armin asked, sounding somewhat sceptical.

“Yes. No?” Jean frowned at the screen. “It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not. There’s a lot of stuff on here.”

“It _is_  the internet,” Armin supplied helpfully. “But I’m sure some of it is true.” He paused for a while, making Jean wonder what he was thinking. He figured Armin would let him in on his thoughts when he felt like it so he went back to clicking through a few pages.

He hated when he came across things for the _Supernatural_  fandom. Like, the TV Show, not the actual Supernatural _world_. He wasn’t sure how much of that was based on fact or just made up. He couldn’t deal with made up right now, he needed real, _concrete_  shit to save his stupid friend’s life.

“You’re not looking up Werewolves,” Armin finally said, evidently speaking the words he’d been chewing over for the past few minutes.

Jean hesitated for the briefest of moments, wondering if he should tell Armin the truth before deciding not to. “Why would I? We have Levi.”

“We don’t know very much about him. Are we going to blindly trust him?”

Jean wondered if it ever got exhausting being the voice of reason.

After all, it wasn’t like he hadn’t thought of that, too, considering he’d looked into what could harm or kill Werewolves, but the more time he spent looking stuff up, the more he just... trusted him. He had faith in him. He believed him when Levi said he wanted to keep Eren safe. It was obvious that whatever was happening had started before Levi and Eren were even on speaking terms, so it wasn’t even possible for Levi to be using this as a ruse.

As far as Jean could tell, he hated that Eren was getting injured, even if it wasn’t a bad injury. Overall, while they didn’t have any reason to trust him, Eren trusted him. For Jean, that was good enough.

Besides, he’d done all of his research on killing Werewolves anyway, he’d just decided in this moment not to tell anyone that, least of all Armin. He was very touchy about murder.

To be fair, Jean wasn’t exactly a murderer himself but nobody hurt his friends. If Levi did anything to Eren, Jean had some silver he could melt down. He was sure he could figure out how to shoot a gun fairly easily. How hard could it be? Aim and shoot. Like paintball. Jean rocked at paintball. He even had a paintball gun in his closet. He wondered if it was possible to keep the silver in liquid form and put it in a paintgun pellet. Something to research, he supposed.

“Do you ever wonder about all this?” Armin asked quietly.

“What do you mean?” Jean bookmarked another page and debated opening his word program before deciding against it. Armin might see how much Werewolf research he had on there.

“Some days I wake up and wonder if I’m still sleeping. We live in a world with Werewolves and Witches.”

“And Vampires,” Jean supplied helpfully. “Apparently. Which is cool because, you know, I didn’t like sleep anyway.” He offered Armin a half-smile and his friend managed one back.

“As long as they don’t sparkle. There’s only so much I can handle.”

Jean let out a loud bark of laughter at that, not having expected something of that nature to escape Armin’s mouth but well, there it was.

Considering, he felt like they were all taking this pretty well. Jean still had random, “Holy fucking _shit_ , Werewolves are _real_?!” moments, but they were less frequent now than they had been even a week ago. All in all, he was doing very well, if he did say so himself.

“Need any help?” Armin asked, scooting the stool closer. “Two sets of eyes are better than one.”

“Sure.” Jean shrugged. “Why not? Not like we shouldn’t both know what’s going on in this crazy place.”

Witches. Seriously. Jean had always wanted to live an exciting life in their boring little town, but he wasn’t exactly keen on being Ron Weasley to Eren’s Harry Potter.

He had a sneaking suspicion Ron Weasley was never truly meant to survive the end of the book and he didn’t want to be the real life proof of that.

* * *

Levi really didn’t like this. He felt exhausted and stressed and _worried_. He hadn’t felt this out of it in a long time and he didn’t know how to handle it anymore. He kept driving back and forth between Trost and Shiganshina, trying to help Hanji with clues on Erwin’s whereabouts while also ensuring he was keeping Eren safe.

Having Mikasa, Jean and Armin more up to speed on what was going on was certainly helping, but while Levi trusted them, there was still that unease of not _truly_  knowing Eren was all right. He didn’t want to be away from him for too long, but he also couldn’t afford not to look for Erwin.

His disappearance would not go unnoticed, and while technically Levi didn’t have to care about the territory and the pack, he acknowledged that, were he still in Trost, he would be in charge right now. With Erwin gone, he was technically next in line to lead the pack.

But his attention was too split to do that. He had to watch out for Eren, so he wasn’t going to be able to watch Erwin’s territory. It was all very stressful and terrifying.

Levi had not stepped foot in his home for almost five days straight. He had been so back and forth that by the time he got back, he actually had a door again. He hadn’t known the door was even coming, which meant someone had found out and tried to find him, and Eren had probably gone to his house and gotten it installed for him. He wished he’d been told during his visits with Eren, but considering he had other concerns on his mind, Eren likely hadn’t thought to mention it.

And he knew that he was upset about not being told what was wrong, but he didn’t want to worry him. Levi knew without a shadow of a doubt that whatever happened to Erwin tied back in with Eren. If he said as much, not only would it worry Eren, but he would probably feel horrible about something happening to Levi’s friend. It was easier to just avoid the topic of discussion altogether. There was no point in worrying another person, he and Hanji had that role covered.

Wandering through the newly replaced front door, Levi dropped his overnight bag on the floor by the entrance while locking the door and then stood in the hallway, rubbing his face with both hands and trying to figure out what to do. He should probably get some sleep, but he knew he was too worried about Erwin to do that. The only solace was that the full moon was still two weeks away, but that didn’t help with the whole “missing” bit.

There was no way he’d be able to sleep. Eren was at work training some newbie for the moment, so Levi could afford to take some down time. Not sleep, but down time.

Wandering slowly through the house, his entire body feeling sluggish and exhausted, he headed into the kitchen to find something to eat. He felt like the house smelled overwhelmingly like Eren, but that was to be expected considering the other always seemed to be around regardless of whether or not Levi was there.

Putting water on for tea, he went hunting through the back of his fridge for something to eat, deciding on questionable looking leftovers. The worst that could happen would be a disgusting taste, luckily being a Werewolf meant he wouldn’t get food poisoning from expired food.

Shoving the container in the microwave, he set the timer, then grabbed himself some teabags from the cabinet and poured the water into a mug. Leaning back against the counter while the tea steeped, he stared out the window with a scowl, thinking on everything that had been found so far.

Hanji was trying to get in touch with the individual Erwin had been talking about in Sina. It was difficult because Erwin had never referenced them by name, so neither he nor Hanji had anything to go on. He trusted Hanji to work on the computer and figure some things out, but they weren’t an expert or a hacker or anything. If whoever wiped the computer and phone knew hacking on top of magic, the likelihood of them discovering anything at all was virtually non-existent.

Taking a large sip of his tea, Levi swallowed and felt the liquid burn its way down his throat. He tried to shrug off the discomfort, thinking maybe it was slightly too hot, but when the burning intensified and he felt his airways beginning to close, he froze.

Looking down into his tea, he allowed himself exactly one second to realize what was going on before turning to the sink and sticking his fingers in his mouth.

His legs gave out before he managed it and he fell to his knees. His vision blurred around the edges and he struggled to stick his fingers far back enough in his mouth but his limbs wouldn’t cooperate.

 _No… No!_  His vision went black and he felt his entire body begin to shut down, airways completely blocked and thoughts cutting off abruptly. _Eren!_

Then his head hit the floor.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *RUNS*


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Hocus Pocus (c) Kenny Ortega  
> Supernatural (c) Eric Kripke  
> Nightmare on Elm Street (c) Wes Craven  
> Halloween (c) John Carpenter  
> MarioKart (c) Nintendo

Jean whistled along to the radio he could barely hear above the roar of his engine. Something in the undercarriage rattled ominously when he passed over a pothole, but the truck kept moving so Jean didn’t pay it any mind.

Using his right hand to turn the wheel slowly, left resting along the window, he pressed down harder on the gas to get the truck moving up the hill. It slowed considerably and began making weird chugging sounds that probably weren’t good for it, but he ignored that and just pressed harder on the gas. The progress was slow going, but he finally made it to the top of the first hill, then around one small bend and up the second hill. When the ground evened out again, the truck stopped acting like an old man and sped up a little bit, allowing him to pull up behind the other truck already parked in the drive. It had been a longshot that the other truck would even be there, so he was happy his visit wasn’t for nothing.

Turning off the engine, he continued whistling along to the song that had been playing on the radio, grabbing some papers and a book off the passenger seat and jumping out of the truck. He trudged up towards the door, knowing he probably wasn’t welcome but not finding the energy to care. Mikasa was at work. Eren was at work. Armin was helping his grandfather _with_  work. Jean had free time, and he had used his free time to look into Supernatural beings—which still freaked him the fuck out—and had some thoughts to share with Levi.

Whether Levi appreciated his thoughts or not.

Climbing the porch steps two at a time, he reached the top and knocked on the door loudly. Wasn’t like his truck hadn’t been loud enough for Levi to hear from down the first hill, but it was still polite to knock. They hadn’t quite reached the stage of their friendship where Jean could just invite himself in like he did at Eren’s and Armin’s.

Silence from inside the house.

“Levi,” he called loudly. “I know you’re in there, your truck’s here.” He moved to the side to try and look through one of the windows. “You can’t ignore me, I’m pretty loud and I’m not going to leave. We need to talk.”

Mostly about the Supernatural beings he’d found in his hunt to figure out what was after Eren, but also _about_  Eren. He wanted to know what he could do to keep him safe, how he could get information on Casters to protect his friend. Did salt work? _Hocus Pocus_ implied salt worked on Witches. Were Casters Witches? He had no idea but he had been using the terms interchangeably.

_Supernatural_ didn’t seem to have the same thoughts. He felt like they used iron to hamper a Witch’s magic, but there was no real way to suppress it entirely. Maybe he could build Eren a giant metal box and cart him around in it. It’d probably be a nice relief for him, considering Eren didn’t seem to sleep much.

Returning to the door, Jean began to bang on it in annoyance. He pounded against the wood until his fist hurt. Then he tried the door. It was locked, which was stupid since nobody locked doors in Shiganshina, but Levi was a big city boy so he was scared someone was going to break in and steal his toaster or something.

Turning to jump off the porch, Jean wandered around the side of the house, shouting up at the second floor. He began with Levi’s name, then began to curse him out. Then his mother. Then God in general. He wandered around the house until he reached the back, still yelling at the second floor—or the sky, by now, who knew? Reaching the back door, he tried it but found it was also locked. Levi really needed to calm down about the whole breaking in thing. Especially when he was _home_! Who locked their door when they were home? Weirdos. Weirdos locked their doors when they were home.

Leaning forward to peer through the large sliding glass door with a squint, Jean frowned when he saw a hand on the floor, peeking out from behind one of the counters. That was weird, and also slightly disgusting. Jean suddenly wondered if Levi ate humans, then remembered that he had seen Levi eat real people food on more than one occasion.

Besides, if he was going to eat anyone, he probably would’ve started with Jean, considering he’d made it explicitly clear he didn’t like him very much. If Jean was still alive, most other humans were probably safe.

It took his brain far too long to figure out that there was a hand peeking out from behind the counter because someone was on the floor. Someone who probably lived in the house. Meaning Levi.

Levi was lying on his kitchen floor and somehow, Jean felt like that wasn’t by choice.

“Levi,” he called loudly, knocking on the window. “Hey, Levi! Levi, are you okay in there?”

Jean didn’t want to panic until there was reason to panic. Maybe Levi had slipped. Maybe he was taking a nap in wolf form and had turned back into a human. Hell, maybe he just really, _really_  liked how the tile felt against his skin.

“Levi! Hey!”

Okay, so he definitely wasn’t sleeping. Panic was beginning to settle in.

Dropping his notes and papers, Jean raced around the side of the house again, aiming for the front door—which he would find a way to break down, if he had to—but he passed an open window in the living room. Shoving it open completely, Jean scrambled through the opening, landing hard on his left arm when he fell into the house. Wincing, he stumbled to his feet, rubbing at his arm and rushing through the house and into the kitchen.

Levi was lying on his stomach on the floor, a broken mug spilling tea across the tile. Overall, the scene looked very much like someone had just poisoned Levi, which was further suggested when Jean saw he had one hand in his mouth.

“Shit!” Racing forward once his brain had time to remind him that, holy shit Levi might be _dying_ , Jean fell to his knees and rolled him onto his back. Bending down, he pressed his ear against Levi’s chest, listening for a heartbeat. It was there, but just barely. When he leaned his face over the other man’s, he found he wasn’t breathing.

There was also some weird black goo at the corners of his mouth.

“Shit! _Shit_!” Hands shaking, Jean reached into his pocket and almost dropped his phone three times while inputting his password. He found the store’s number, knowing Eren wouldn’t answer his cell during a day shift, and pressed it to his ear.

“Come on, come on, come _on_!” he shouted.

_"Hello, this i—”_

“I need to talk to Eren!” Jean practically bellowed into the phone. “Nine-one-one, emergency, urgent as fuck! Now!” Silence. “Now, shit-for-brains!”

He heard elevator music begin to play and bent down to press his ear against Levi’s chest again. Shit, was it his imagination, or was Levi’s heartbeat steadily slowing? He already wasn’t breathing, how long before his heart stopped? Shit, had he eaten silver or something? Mistletoe? Wolfsbane? Fucking Rye grains?!

Shit, what was Jean supposed to _do_?! He was _not_  a veterinarian! Or a doctor! Honestly, he didn’t know what would be the better option right now!

The elevator music stopped.

_“Jean, what the he—”_

“Levi is dying!” he shouted, interrupting Eren’s anger-filled reprimand. “Levi is fucking dying and I don’t know why or what to do!”

_“Dying? What do you mean **dying**?!”_  Eren demanded, voice rising. _“What happened?!”_

“I don’t know! I showed up and he didn’t answer and I went around back and he’s lying on the kitchen floor and his heart is super slow and he’s not breathing and he’s got black gunk on his lips and I think he’s dying! What do I do?! Do I call the clinic?! Or a vet?! What do I do?!”

_“Call Erwin! Jean, **call Erwin**!”_

Jean was two seconds away from having a massive panic attack when Levi started convulsing. His lips parted and a spatter of what Jean assumed was blood escaped from between them. It was black, but he felt like it was blood.

“Oh shit! Shit, _shit_!” Jean dropped his phone and pressed both hands down against Levi’s shoulders, trying to stop the convulsions.

Then he remembered something Mikasa had once told him about a guy who’d bitten through his tongue while convulsing and he immediately rolled Levi onto his side. Eren was screaming at him from his phone, reminding him of what he was supposed to do.

Call Erwin.

How? He didn’t have his number!

Didn’t matter, because he could hear Eren swearing on the other end.

_“Erwin’s going to voicemail! It’s fucking **voicemail**! Jean, call Hanji! I don’t have their number, call Hanji!”_

“Call Hanji?! How?! I don’t—” His eyes landed on Levi’s jeans and he hastily shoved one hand into his closest pocket. He yanked out a wallet. Rolling Levi onto his other side while he continued to convulse, he managed to get his hand into the other pocket and yanked out a phone.

Password protected. Of course.

Grabbing Levi’s shoulder with the same hand holding the phone, he grabbed his own up off the ground and put it to his ear. “How am I supposed to get Hanji’s number?!”

_“It’s in Levi’s phone!”_

“It’s got a password!” Levi had just stopped convulsing. That couldn’t be good.

_“Isabelle, it’s Isabelle!”_

“What?”

_“His password! It’s Isabelle!”_

“What?!” Jean demanded again.

_“Just fucking spell the name out, Jean!”_

Jean immediately brought the other phone up, dropping his own and typing in the password he was given. The screen unlocked and he tapped on Levi’s contacts, scrolling through them. No one in the phone was named Hanji, but before he could even ask Eren about it, he heard his friend yelling, “Shitty-Glasses!” down the line.

There was a Shitty-Glasses contact. He tapped it and put the phone to his ear.

It rang. And rang. And rang. If Hanji didn’t answer… If Erwin and Hanji _both_  didn’t answer…

The line clicked.

_“Levi, I can’t talk rig—”_

“Levi is convulsing and not breathing and there’s blood, I mean I think it’s blood, it’s totally blood, there’s blood and it’s black and he’s convulsing and a Werewolf and what do I do?!” Jean shouted into the phone.

It was amazing that Hanji didn’t even miss a beat. They went from not having time to immediately asking questions.

_“Where’s the black blood coming from? Is it under his skin?”_

“No, his mouth! He’s like, throwing it up or something!”

_“Is he still breathing?”_

“No!”

_“Listen to me very carefully. If blood is coming from his mouth, it means he ingested it. You need to make him throw up.”_

Jean’s brain stuttered to a halt. Was it Wolfsbane? “What?! If he’s unconscious, I can’t make him throw up, he’ll choke and die!” Jean may not have been a doctor, but he knew that inducing vomiting with an unconscious person was a bad idea.

_“Werewolves are different, he’ll survive it, but if you do nothing, Levi is going to **die**!”_ Hanji shouted. _“Make him throw up **now**!”_

Tossing the phone aside to join his own, where the call seemed to no longer be connected to the store, Jean grabbed Levi’s arm and yanked him into a seated position. A tiny part of his brain was grossed out by what he was about to do, but a larger part was screaming about the fact that Levi was _dying_.

“This is gonna suck for both of us,” he muttered, propping Levi up against the cabinet and then forcing his mouth open. He shifted slightly so he wasn’t directly beside him, and then shoved his fingers into Levi’s mouth as far back as they could go.

At first, nothing happened. He wondered if maybe he couldn’t get them back far enough, or if maybe it was impossible to make someone throw up if they weren’t breathing. Before he could try and figure out what to do, he felt liquid against his fingers and yanked them back quickly, but not before Levi threw up all over Jean’s hand and his own lap.

Making a sound of disgust, Jean stuck his fingers back into Levi’s mouth, forcing them to the back of his throat again. Another bout of vomit followed, but it was smaller, as if Levi didn’t actually have much of anything in his stomach to begin with and the throwing up he’d just done had pretty much emptied it.

Okay. Levi had thrown up. Now what?

Grabbing the phone Hanji was connected to with his clean hand, he brought it to his ear.

“Okay, he threw up, now what?”

_“Get him breathing again!”_

Jean looked at Levi uncertainly. That would mean mouth-to-mouth… against the mouth that had just thrown up…

He had only half a second to feel like a horrible person for not wanting to before cursing and tossing the phone down again. He got Levi onto his back, hoping to God that wasn’t going to have him choking on vomit or anything. Using the bottom of his shirt, he wiped at Levi’s mouth, then shifted and plugged his nose.

“Okay. Okay,” he said, struggling to get his shit together. Letting out one sharp exhale, he bent down and covered Levi’s mouth with his own. He tried his best to ignore the smell, and the taste. He just focussed on breathing out, hoping he was doing this right since he didn’t actually know _what_  he was doing. The Internet was a teacher in theory, not in practice.

Pulling away, he waited for a second to see if Levi would start breathing again, then repeated the action, breathing into his mouth.

He almost bit through his own tongue when there was a bang behind him. Less than a second later, he was being shoved aside and Eren was bent over Levi, slapping his face and calling his name. He leaned the side of his face close to Levi’s, then mimicked what Jean had just been doing, pinching his nose with one hand and covering his mouth with his own. He exhaled twice and then began doing chest compressions. Jean didn’t realize he was supposed to do those when someone wasn’t breathing, but then thought maybe Eren didn’t know Levi’s heart was still beating.

Eren only had to give him mouth-to-mouth two more times before Levi jerked and began to cough. He rolled onto his side, coughing hard and spitting out black ooze—or blood, whichever.

“Levi,” Eren said, voice tight and hands gripping the other’s shoulder tightly. “Levi, are you all right? Are you okay?”

Levi was still coughing, his breathing laboured and painful-sounding. He had one hand clenched in the material of Eren’s jeans, the other pressed against the tile floor.

Hanji’s voice was still screaming through the phone so Jean reached down to grab it and shut them up.

_"Is he okay?! What’s happening?!”_

“Hey. He’s breathing again. He’s awake. I think he’s okay.”

_“You think, or you know?!”_

“Hanji,” Levi said, voice rough and scratchy. “I’m okay.”

Jean was about to relay it, but Hanji replied before he could. Then he remembered Werewolf hearing, and figured Levi and Hanji could have an entire conversation with one another through telephones across the room from them.

_“Are you sure? How much did you ingest? Can you stand?”_

“Working on it,” Levi grunted. He shifted one hand to the counter and Eren grabbed his other arm. Together, they managed to get him to his feet, vomit slowly making its way down Levi’s front. He saw the Werewolf wince, but he said nothing and just struggled to keep himself standing.

“I’m okay,” he repeated. “You should stay somewhere else tonight. Just in case.”

Jean didn’t understand why Levi would say that, or why Hanji would agree like they did, but after a brief and cryptic discussion, Hanji told Levi they would call him in an hour and then hung up.

“Are you okay?” Eren asked. He looked pale, as if _he_  had been the one poisoned just now.

Jean himself just felt sick. Not because of the mouth-to-mouth with someone who’d just thrown up, though that was gross too. No, he felt sick because he suddenly realized this was his life now. Where evil Supernatural beings made his best friend sleepwalk and Werewolves were poisoned and Vampires were real.

He felt like he was going to throw up, too.

“I’ll be okay,” Levi said, coughing roughly for a few seconds. “Just need to make sure it’s out of my system.”

“What was it?” Eren asked. “Poison? Like arsenic or something?”

“Wolfsbane.”

“Huh?” was Eren’s response to that.

Jean’s brain immediately picked up on the word, having been right. Research was his happy place, and despite the adrenaline still coursing through him, spouting out random bullshit he’d learned from the Internet would likely calm him down. He pointed his finger up at Levi and Eren once the word sank in. He _had_  to point up because he was still sitting on the floor.

“Oh! Oh, I read about that! It’s like poison to Werewolves! It’s this purple flower that people used to use in mythology to kill or incapacitate Werewolves! If they breathe small quantities in, it’ll weaken them to the point where they can be restrained. If they inhale large quantities, it can kill them. If they ingest it, it _will_  kill them. Apparently people usually mix it with other magical herbs so that it’ll render Werewolves unconscious or weaken them, but not kill them, because there’s a huge black market trade with other Supernaturals for Werewolves.”

Levi seemed insultingly impressed, like he hadn’t even known Jean was capable of reading. Jean would’ve regretted having saved his life if he hadn’t _literally_  just saved his life. It was less funny when it wasn’t a real joke.

“Huh?” Eren said again.

“Someone put wolfsbane in my tea,” Levi said, his voice still sounding a little off. “At least, I think it was in my tea. Probably wasn’t in the water, so the tea seems like the most logical place.”

“How would anyone even know to use wolfsbane?” Eren asked. “And why?”

“Well, isn’t it obviously the person after you?” Jean asked. “I mean, it makes sense that they would know what Levi is, and if they wanted to get rid of him, wolfsbane would be the smartest thing to use. It’s a poison to Werewolves, and while it can hurt normal people too, if someone did an autopsy and found arsenic in Levi’s system, they’d know it was murder. If it’s wolfsbane, it’s not something they’ll put two and two together with, they’d just assume it was an accident. Levi just ate the wrong plant or whatever.”

Jean was severely insulted by the looks he was getting.

“What?! I’ve been _researching_ , okay! I’m the research guy! It’s what I do!”

“So wait, are we actually saying someone just tried to kill you?” Eren asked, turning back to Levi. “That’s crazy, though, right? I mean—that’s completely nuts, right?”

Levi said nothing, which suggested that, no, it _wasn’t_  completely nuts. Jean thought it was nuts, but apparently Levi didn’t think so. That was a terrifying thought.

“Okay wait,” Jean insisted, finally deciding he should get to his feet since staring up at the other two was weird. “Are we saying that this person or thing or whatever that’s after Eren is willing to _kill_  people to get to him?!”

“I think it’s willing to kill anything that stands between it and Eren. That tends to be me, mostly,” Levi muttered.

“ _And_  me! Holy shitballs!” Jean ran both hands through his hair, rubbing at the back of his head where his hair was shortest. “Holy shit. Is this actually happening? This is insane. There’s no way this is real!”

He ignored the way Levi was looking at him, obviously full of judgment. Eren looked apologetic and guilty, like he hated that this was happening as much as anyone else did. He especially looked worried and upset about the whole people dying thing.

“Jean.”

“What?” he asked, trying to stay calm.

“Thank you.” Levi nodded slightly. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“Oh. Right. Sure. No problem.” That reminded Jean he had vomit all over his hand. Which he had just been pushing through his hair. Terrific.

“I should probably avoid my house for a while,” Levi said, not sounding happy about it. “There might be more wolfsbane around here, and while I’m distracted, I’m liable to ingest more of it.”

“You can stay with me,” Jean said, thought he wasn’t necessarily happy about it. “My parents aren’t in town right now, and they won’t mind anyway.”

He could tell Eren wanted to offer him a room, but that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. People were trying to kill Levi and kidnap Eren. Having them both in the same place seemed to be a fairly bad idea. Two birds, one stone kinda thing.

“Maybe,” was Levi’s reply. “I’m going to have to think about what to do. This is starting to get out of hand. First Erwin, now this, an—”

Levi cut himself off, as if he’d said something he shouldn’t have. Jean and Eren shared a look, and Jean was pretty sure his friend was ready to have a complete meltdown.

“What about Erwin? Levi, what happened to Erwin?!”

Levi’s face hardened, like he was angry with himself, but after a few tense seconds of silence, he sighed as if in defeat and rubbed at his mouth. He looked like he’d aged in just a few short seconds, like he’d been carrying this weight with him for weeks and was finally breaking under the sheer heaviness of it.

“Not here,” he finally said. “We need to talk somewhere outside of my house before wolfsbane is released through my AC system.”

Filing out of the house once Levi changed, Jean barely remembered to grab his research before they got into their respective trucks and made their way back to the store.

Jean just hoped nobody’s vehicle blew up.

It was sad that his new life made that a valid possibility.

* * *

Eren stared intently at his bedroom window, the darkness beyond more terrifying than it had ever been before. He was afraid to sleep. He was afraid to even exist. A part of him almost wondered if he shouldn’t just find this evil being and give himself up to them in exchange for his friends’ lives.

He knew it was evil, now. After almost killing Levi, and doing _something_  to Erwin, Eren knew without a shadow of a doubt that whatever was after him wasn’t looking for a new buddy. It was looking for…

What?

Eren had no idea what the evil being wanted from him. He wasn’t particularly talented, he was average in looks, he was below average in intelligence. He really didn’t have anything going for him, so why would something be after him?

A noise sounded behind him and he jerked up in bed, whipping around and wishing there was more light.

“It’s just me,” Levi said from the shadows. He moved forward so that the light from outside bounced off his form. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Wasn’t sleeping,” Eren said, shifting one leg so he was sitting up more comfortably. “I can’t sleep.”

Levi wandered slowly towards him, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry this is happening.”

“Why are _you_  sorry? I’m the reason your friend is missing.” Even saying the words made it feel like there was broken glass in his mouth. “I’m sorry about Erwin.”

“Whatever happened to him, I know he’s still alive.” Levi scowled. “I can’t explain how I know, but it’s just a feeling. A strong one. Erwin’s alive wherever he is. Obviously they needed him for something, or maybe they never intended to kill anyone but something about me just pissed them off enough to try.”

Eren felt himself pushing down panic for the millionth time that day, not wanting to let it rise or he worried he would never be able to get rid of it.

Someone had tried to kill Levi. Because of him. Because of _him_!

If Jean hadn’t magically shown up at his house, Levi would’ve died. Eren would’ve gone over after work, five hours later, and Levi would’ve been lying dead in the kitchen. Eren had no words to express how thankful he was that Jean had gone to see Levi.

Whatever he’d been planning on discussing with him had ended up getting pushed aside, considering, but the fact that he’d gone up there at all was legitimately the only reason Levi was stalking around in the shadows of his bedroom.

“What does this thing even want with me?” Eren asked quietly. “What does it _want_?”

“I think Erwin found out,” Levi said, eyes lowered and staring at his hands, which were clasped together in his lap. “I think that’s why they took him. He figured something out, and they didn’t want him sharing. Hanji’s working on it.”

Eren wished he had a way to fix this. He wished he knew what to _do_. But he didn’t. He didn’t aside from offering himself up as a sacrifice to keep others from being hurt.

Levi would never go for it. Neither would Mikasa. Or Jean, or Armin.

Armin had been particularly horrified upon finding out Erwin was missing and Levi had almost died. He almost seemed to act like it was a personal affront and had been locked in his room all night researching.

Researching _what_ , exactly, Eren had no idea. It was a little weird though since Jean was the resident researcher, but if Armin wanted to try, it wasn’t like anyone could stop him.

Besides, Jean was mostly trying to find counters against Supernatural beings, but Armin seemed more interested in Eren’s history as a whole in an attempt to figure out what was after him and why.

And what was Eren doing?

Emoing in his room. Seriously, whatever was after him had poor taste.

“You should get some sleep, Eren.”

“I can’t,” he insisted. “I’ll just wander away again.”

“I have a good feeling about tonight,” Levi said with a scowl. Why he was scowling, Eren had no idea, but he felt like it was a permanent look since his near-death that afternoon. “They’re going to be licking their wounds after finding out they didn’t manage to get rid of me. I don’t think they’ll try anything with you tonight.”

“Do you think they’re Casters, like you said?” Eren asked. “Given everything that’s happened, would that be a reasonable guess?”

“Probably,” Levi didn’t seem to like having to guess. “It’s extremely difficult to mask your scent from a Werewolf. I know there’s ways to trick tracking dogs by running through water and overloading the senses, but it’s different when it’s a Werewolf walking into their own home. I could smell you everywhere, and while I should’ve assumed something was wrong when I realized the smell was so potent, to be able to mask their scent so completely is… impressive.”

Levi was silent for a moment, then let out a noise of annoyance.

“What?” Eren asked.

“I just hate that this is all we ever seem to talk about. Not that it isn’t important, but I don’t like that our entire relationship, romantic or otherwise, is completely dominated by discussions of  _this_.”

Eren felt like he could understand that. Truthfully, it irked him as well, but it wasn’t exactly something they could control. They had to talk about the fact that Erwin was missing, and Eren was sleepwalking, and Levi was being targeted. This was their reality; one he’d unfortunately dragged his sister and two best friends into.

“Well, you could always come here and get some sleep with me.” Eren motioned the spot beside him.

“Have we moved onto sleeping together now?” Levi seemed somewhat amused. He wasn’t scowling anymore, at least.

“I’ve slept with you multiple times.”

“In wolf form. It’s different.”

“How so? You wake up human. And naked.” Eren smirked. “Very naked.”

“Clothes are overrated anyway.”

“We’ve slept together clothed, too.”

Levi seemed to have forgotten about that, because he paused for a moment with a frown, before making a humming noise of agreement.

Eren thought that maybe Levi would tell him to sleep and go back to lurk in a corner like he always did. Surprisingly, after his comment, Levi was silent for a moment and then he kicked off his shoes. Shifting up the bed, he got under the covers beside Eren, jeans and all, and pressed himself against Eren’s side, one arm curling around his middle and holding him protectively.

“The chances of you escaping this grip are legitimately in the negative numbers,” he said, rubbing his cheek against Eren’s bare shoulder.

“I’m feeling that,” Eren said with a small laugh.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, feeling Levi’s even breathing against his neck and the steady beat of his heart against his side. Being around Levi always made him feel safe. It was weird to think that looking him in the eye used to terrify him when he’d first met him. That seemed like a completely different lifetime ago. Like a different person. He couldn’t even imagine his life without Levi now, which was a terrifying thought.

“Hey Levi?” he asked quietly.

“Mm?”

Eren wanted to apologize again. He wanted to say he would do everything he could to find Erwin, and he would fucking kill the evil Supernatural being after him for everything they’d done.

The words wouldn’t come. They felt empty. He felt like once he said them aloud, he’d have to follow through, but he didn’t know how he could do that. He couldn’t even protect himself right now, and while he wanted to protect everyone else in his life, he had no idea how to go about even starting.

All he could think about was giving himself up. Just—hide from Levi one night, fall asleep, let himself end up where he ended up.

Did he want to die? _Fuck_  no. But having others die _because_  of him...

“Eren?”

Right. He’d been saying something. Or about to. He didn’t even know anymore.

Turning to look at Levi, whatever he’d been thinking went flying out the window. He was so _close_. He was right there, right beside him, and his eyes were glowing a little in the dark, and—

Eren kissed him. He hadn’t been planning to, and he felt weird about it as soon as he’d done it, but he didn’t even know why. Weren’t they together? Levi kept implying they were, but they didn’t really _do_  any of the things people who were together did.

To be fair, their relationship was a little weird. Most people didn’t have Supernatural beings after them in their sleep while also trying to kill their boyfriend.

“Sorry,” he muttered once he’d pulled away.

“You’re an idiot.”

Eren would’ve been offended by that if his face hadn’t immediately been grabbed and Levi was kissing him again. Maybe they’d both been holding back, unsure of the other’s boundaries, and too focussed on what was happening around them. Levi’s best friend was missing. Someone had tried to kill Levi. Eren was probably going to be dead before fall.

But none of that mattered right now. It was hard for it to matter when all Eren could think about was how warm Levi’s fingers were against his skin and how slick his tongue was against his own. How Levi would break away from him, shift slightly to get more comfortable before diving back in, teeth digging into Eren’s bottom lip and hands lowering so that one rested against his neck, the heat of his skin almost burning.

Levi kissed him hard, his lips pressing painfully against Eren’s while his legs kicked out, shoving the blankets off them and over the end of the bed. Once they were out of the way, Eren felt more than saw Levi throw one leg over him, straddling him and grabbing at his wrists. They ended up over Eren’s head, Levi pressing them down into the mattress, keeping him in place while he continued to kiss him.

When Levi began rocking his hips downward, a groan slid up Eren’s throat and he clenched his fists, testing the Werewolf’s strength, even while knowing he wouldn’t be able to break free from his grip. Levi’s movements were making Eren’s dick begin to harden twice as fast as it already had been with their making out. It wasn’t helping that Eren was wearing only a pair of sweats while Levi was in his jeans. The roughness of the material was penetrating the thinness of his pyjama bottoms, making every press downward twice as stimulating as he felt it had the right to be.

When Levi released his hands and moved back, Eren leaned up into the kiss when it became clear he was starting to pull away again. His freed hands moved up to grip at the beltloops of Levi’s jeans, pulling his hips back down.

Levi straightened enough that Eren couldn’t keep their lips connected without sitting up himself so he ended up just biting hard at Levi’s bottom one before releasing it and falling onto his back once more, fingers still twisted into Levi’s beltloops.

“Greedy,” Levi said with a half-smirk, reaching down and gripping the bottom of his shirt. He wrenched it up over his head and tossed it onto the ground, then braced one hand beside Eren’s head and leaned down again, kissing him once more. He didn’t lie on top of him again, keeping some space between them, and Eren let out a groan when the purpose of the space was made clear.

Levi’s other hand was slowly trailing down his stomach, his muscles jerking beneath pale fingers when he hit ticklish spots on his skin. God, Eren really hoped this wasn’t a dream or he was going to wake up extremely pissed off.

He doubted it, though. This felt too real. Levi’s hands were so hot against his skin. His mouth was warm and wet and he couldn’t get enough of him.

Another groan left him when Levi’s hand dipped beneath the hem of his sweats, nothing standing between the Werewolf’s fingers and his cock.

“Fuck,” Eren said, ripping his mouth away from Levi’s. “ _Fuck_!”

Levi didn’t seem satisfied with leaving his mouth free so he began to lick and kiss his way along Eren’s neck, settling on his pulse and sucking hard. His fingers closed around Eren’s cock at the same time and another groan left him. Eren had to reach up and stick his fist into his mouth, biting down hard on his knuckles, to avoid making any more sound. If they’d been at Levi’s, he’d have been as vocal as he needed to be. But here? His sister was next door and his parents were down the hall.

Levi’s hand began to move, slowly, sluggishly, like he was trying to make him suffer. It was working, Eren trying to buck up into his hand. Levi gave him a look, one he’d never seen before, and it seemed to make him want to obey. To listen to everything he said, and even things he didn’t.

“I want them to know,” Levi said, voice low and rough, hand beginning to pick up in speed. “I want everyone to know that you’re mine. I want every Werewolf a mile away to be able to smell me all over you.”

Eren let out another groan, biting down harder on his fist, feeling his teeth breaking skin. His free hand shifted from bruising Levi’s bicep to his hair, tugging hard at the dark strands. He spread his legs wider, left knee hitting Levi’s leg because of how they were positioned, and let his head fall back onto the pillow, tilting it back so it exposed more of his neck. This was something Levi took full advantage of, licking up the column of flesh before biting along his jaw and then back down to find another place to suck.

His hand was moving faster, squeezing harder. Eren felt like he was going to bite clean through his fist, breathing ragged and harsh through his nose. Tugging harder at Levi’s hair, he let out a rather embarrassing whine from the back of his throat and tensed before coming.

He tried to curl into himself a bit more, but Levi was still bearing down on him, hand slowing but not stopping while he rode out his orgasm, cum sticky and wet inside his sweats.

Levi finally slowed his hand and pulled it from Eren’s pants. He sat up then, staring at his soiled hand with a scowl, as if not knowing what to do with it. Shrugging one shoulder, he stuck one cum-covered finger into his mouth, eyes locked on Eren.

Who was still biting into his fist. He _had_  managed to release Levi’s hair though. He didn’t want him going bald early in life because of his hair pulling.

Managing to extract his teeth from his skin, Eren saw he’d been right when he’d thought he’d broken skin, an impression of his teeth clearly visible in small divots of red.

“Well,” he said hoarsely, as if he’d been stopping himself from screaming—which he might have been. “That wasn’t what I expected when I invited you into my bed, but am I ever glad I did.”

“Your fault for starting it,” Levi said, licking between two fingers. He reminded Eren of a cat, cleaning his hand thoroughly with his tongue. It was one of the hottest things Eren had ever seen.

“I should start things more often,” Eren said with a small laugh, eyes lowering to Levi’s jeans. “Those must be feeling pretty tight.”

“What are you implying?” Levi asked, face expressionless.

“Want some help?”

Levi seemed like he didn’t know what to answer with, so he didn’t. He just pulled his leg back and fell onto his side, shuffling until he was lying down and staring at the ceiling again. He turned his head slightly to look at Eren, then motioned down his body.

Grinning, Eren sat up, ignoring the discomfort in his pants and moved so he was able to undo Levi’s jeans. Pushing the button through the eyehole and sliding the zipper down, he grabbed the other’s beltloops once more and tugged. Levi raised his hips off the bed and Eren managed to get his jeans down muscled thighs and then off completely, tossing them across the room. Levi was wearing boxer briefs, which he supposed made sense since Eren had only been commando due to being in his pyjamas. Levi had been wearing clothes from earlier in the day.

Thankfully not the ones he’d thrown up all over.

He could see Levi’s erection straining against the dark material and he grabbed the elastic band, pulling it down just enough to free his cock. Levi made a face and hissed, but otherwise didn’t react.

Grinning up the length of Levi’s body from his position between his legs, Eren leaned his face down closer to the other’s erection, one hand coming up to wrap around it and pump lazily. He let his lips brush against one side of his cock and saw Levi’s eyes darken considerably.

“So when you said you wanted me to smell like you, how exactly does that work?” He let his tongue slide up one side of Levi’s cock. He’d never done this before, but he watched porn. He was sure he could figure it out, and as long as he didn’t think too much on the taste, he’d be fine. “Do you have to fuck me? Or cum inside me? If I suck your dick right now, will I smell enough like you for everyone to know I belong to you?”

He could almost _see_  the way Levi was cracking behind that mask of indifference. His hands were slowly curling into the sheets on either side of his body, his eyes were darkening more and more by the second, and his throat worked as if he wanted to speak but didn’t think he should. It was a very different Levi than Eren was used to. Hell, he was different than he’d been even five minutes ago.

“Do you want me to smell like you?” Eren asked, still grinning mischievously. He let his lips wrap around the tip of Levi’s cock, flicking his tongue into the slit and collecting pre-cum. He was more than ready to start sucking. More than ready to just blow him right now and work his dick until Levi came in his mouth.

He didn’t get the chance. He’d barely even begun to slide down the length of Levi’s cock when the other sat up so abruptly Eren almost choked. He thought at first someone had entered his room, or maybe an evil Leprechaun had appeared at his window.

But no. Levi had jerked upright to grab Eren’s hair and yank hard until the brunet was on his back once more. Levi’s hands were at the waistband of his sweats and he wrenched them off in one fluid motion, tossing them across the room as if he were worried Eren would chase after them. Then he pulled his boxer-briefs off and bore down over Eren, kissing him again while kicking the underwear the rest of the way off his legs.

Levi was still impossibly hard, erection pressing against Eren’s stomach, but confusion began to set in when Levi’s hand was back at his soft cock. He began to run his fingers over it, wrapping them around him once more and—not really stroking exactly, but almost collecting the cum.

Shifting so he was pushing one leg between Eren’s, Levi’s hand lowered until it—

Oh. _Oh_!

Holy shit, were they doing this? Right now? _Here_?!

“Tell me I can do this,” Levi said, voice low and rough. “Tell me this is okay.”

Eren didn’t have any complaints other than the fact that his fucking family was _right outside his bedroom door_! This was why Eren needed to move out. Because he was about to have sex, and all he could think about was his family overhearing.

But then... He stared down at his hand, at the peppered scars there, then lowered his gaze further to the still healing bruises and chaffing on his wrist. Levi had almost died today. Erwin was missing.

Something was after Eren.

Fuck if his parents heard.

“I am going to shred the shit out of your shoulder,” was his response.

Levi took that as the invitation it was and thrust one cum-covered finger into Eren’s body. It felt too hot. Everything felt too hot. He didn’t know if it was what they were doing, or just because Levi’s body temperature ran hotter than normal people’s, but it was extremely fucking hot right now.

He bent his knees and arched his back, spreading his legs wider so that it gave Levi more room to work. He may not have been well-versed in gay sex, but even _he_  knew that they wouldn’t be able to fuck with his cum as a lubricant alone.

While Levi worked on stretching him with cum-covered fingers, Eren reached out one hand towards his nightstand and knocked a few things over in his effort to open his drawer. He was a horny man in his early twenties, he would be stupid not to have lube easily accessible from his bed.

Letting out a grunt and pushing down on Levi’s fingers when he added another—Eren wasn’t sure how many that was, but it felt like enough—his hand almost spasmed in the drawer attempting to find the lube. He finally closed his fingers around the half-empty tube and yanked it out, breathing hard and thrusting it down the length of his body towards Levi.

“And here I thought you didn’t know anything about sex.”

“Asshole,” Eren said with a half-smile. “Are you gonna fuck me, or what?”

The fingers left him and Levi sat up. His movements were all jerky and somewhat clumsy, like he was in a hurry. Or desperate, maybe. Or excited, it was hard to tell with Levi sometimes.

He got the lube open and squeezed some into his hand before tossing it aside. Eren made a sound at the action, since now he’d have to go find it to put it away, but not right now.

His eyes returned to Levi, who was slicking his cock and hissing between his teeth.

_Definitely not right now,_  he thought, licking his lips and watching Levi’s hand work. He was already half-hard again, and he didn’t know how he was going to fare coming twice in such a short period of time, but he didn’t particularly care.

He wasn’t entirely sure what he expected to follow. Levi maybe asking if he was sure, or a look passing between them to confirm everything was still okay, or even Levi leaning up to kiss him while pushing in.

He didn’t get any of that. Levi slicked his cock, and then positioned himself and jerked his hips forward. He slammed into Eren in one hard thrust that had the brunet let out a strangled shout he just barely managed to muffle with the crook of his elbow, pressing his arm hard against his own mouth.

Levi pulled his arm away, bending down to kiss him and bracing one hand against the headboard behind him, the other against Eren’s hip. It was uncomfortable, and it stung a little bit, but it wasn’t unbearable. It occurred to him that he’d never mentioned the fact that he was a virgin to Levi. He didn’t think he should bring it up right now, it would probably make him feel bad.

Breaking the kiss, Levi’s hand tightened against the headboard, the wood groaning ominously beneath his grip.

“Try not to break my bed,” Eren panted, wrapping one arm up under Levi’s armpit so his hand gripped his shoulder, and the other down on the Werewolf’s lower back.

“Try to stay quiet,” was the other’s response, voice low and unrecognizable. “If your parents walk in, you’re in for a huge shock if you think I’ll stop.”

Before Eren could say anything to that, Levi pulled out and slammed back in. His bed slammed loudly against the wall and something like electricity shot up Eren’s spine. He dug his teeth into Levi’s shoulder, nails digging into his skin and dragging. It didn’t seem to bother Levi much, considering the only thing he did was grab one of Eren’s pillows and shove it up between the wall and the headboard so that his next slam in was more muffled.

Eren’s eyes were clenched shut, breathing ragged and teeth digging in hard enough to taste blood. He didn’t let up, body jerking with every thrust, feeling Levi glance off his prostate every now and then. He managed to shift his hips ever so slightly so that when Levi slammed in again, it was right on target, a loud shout escaping him, muffled by the Werewolf’s shoulder.

Levi was panting against his neck, teeth grazing against his skin but not biting into it. Eren felt fangs against his throat, and it occurred to him that Levi was partly transformed, like he had been that day they’d made out for the first time. It explained the sting in his hip and the wetness he could feel there. He’d thought it was sweat but was now pretty sure it was blood from where his sharpened claws were digging into his skin.

It didn’t hurt much, it was muted by the unspeakable pleasure of Levi’s cock slamming into him over and over again.

_Yes, yes, yes, yes..._ The word kept repeating in his head, like it was on a loop. Every slam in felt better than the one before it and the way Levi held him, the way he was practically trying to pull Eren closer until he consumed every inch of him...

Biting down hard, Eren clenched his eyes shut more tightly than they already were and came. No stimulus, no hand around him, nothing. Just the movement of their bodies and the way Levi was desperately trying to make sure Eren was completely and entirely his.

Each slam in after that made his body jerk, a mix of pain and pleasure racing up and down his spine. He tried to clench around Levi, tried to help him along, and after a few minutes of this, Levi snarled into the pillow beside Eren’s head and came.

Eren winced when the nails in his side dug in deeper, but he didn’t make a sound, waiting for the tremors to subside and Levi’s breathing to return to normal. Once it did, Levi’s fingers loosened and Eren’s teeth sank in further in the Werewolf’s shoulders, feeling every claw leave his body. It hadn’t been deep, but it had been enough to hurt.

Levi was still panting beside his ear, teeth against his skin. Eren could feel them retracting slightly, and he wondered what Levi had looked like. It made him wonder if he could go part-wolf whenever he wanted, or if it was just reserved for activities like this.

“Sorry,” Levi muttered. “I didn’t mean to lose control. I’m still not entirely used to this.”

Eren’s mouth was still full, given he hadn’t released Levi’s shoulder, but he was kind of scared to do so before the other pulled out. He didn’t need to make a sound _now_  after he’d managed to hold them all in while they were fucking.

Jesus Christ, he and Levi had just fucked with Mikasa next door and his parents down the hall. He severely hoped nobody had heard.

Levi pulled out and slowly moved away, clearly waiting for Eren to let him go and release his shoulder. He did, extracting his teeth and loosening his grip, but he didn’t allow him to pull away completely.

“Shit,” Eren said, arms still wrapped around Levi. His stomach was sticky with cum, and his ass stung, but somehow he still wanted to cling to Levi and keep him exactly where he was.

“Are you okay? I went a little—I was more careful with people who didn’t know what I was. I got carried away because you know I’m a Werewolf. I’m sorry.”

“Do not apologize for mind-blowing sex,” Eren insisted, finally letting Levi go and letting his arms fall over his eyes. “That was... I mean... wow...”

Levi just let out a soft laugh and Eren felt him lower himself over him, cheek resting against Eren’s chest.

“Sorry about your shoulder.”

“It’ll heal.”

“Right.” He paused. “Do I smell like you, now?”

“Mm. But I plan on making sure the smell doesn’t fade any time soon.” Eren felt the smirk against his skin and he let out a small laugh, wrapping his arms around him. He realized the blanket was now on the floor, but then again, he had an extra hot body against him. He doubted he’d need it.

Though he was surprised Levi was pressing his naked body against Eren’s cum. He’d always kind of struck him as a clean freak. Maybe sex was different.

“You’re gonna have to be gone before my parents are up,” Eren whispered, hating that he had to, but knowing it was true. Adult or not, his parents would _not_  be okay with him fucking in their house. Levi’s, sure, but not under their roof. It was one of those “you can do what you want as long as I don’t know about it” kind of things.

“I will be,” Levi promised.

Eren just hummed at him, closing his eyes and letting one hand brush lightly up and down Levi’s back. Sleep descended on him a few minutes later, Eren not feeling scared of it for the first time in a long time.

When he woke up hours later to the sun shining through his window and birds chirping annoyingly, he found his stomach clean, a pair of sweats on and a blanket tucked up to his neck.

And, true to his word, Levi was gone.

* * *

“Holy shit,” Jean insisted, holding Eren’s head in such a way that he was positive his friend was trying to wrench it right off his body. “Are you sure he’s not a Vampire? How many blood samples did he needs? Jesus, Eren, they’re so _dark_! And there’re like, eight of them!”

Eren shoved Jean away, his neck stinging from the attempt to separate his head from his body. He placed one hand over the hickeys and winced a little, still embarrassed about them. He supposed Levi had meant he wanted _everyone_  to know he was taken. The smell was for Werewolves, but humans couldn’t tell that, so the hickeys were probably for the humans.

To say breakfast had been extremely uncomfortable was an understatement, because Eren had very clearly gone to bed _without_  hickeys, and had wandered unknowingly into the kitchen with a neck full of them. It was his own fault for not being awake enough while brushing his teeth to look in the mirror.

That had been difficult to explain. He’d had to lie and say he’d snuck out of the house the night before, but Mikasa looked so uncomfortable beside him that he felt like she’d heard what had really happened.

He had a hard time looking her in the eye for the rest of the day, and was almost happy when it was time to head to work. Where Jean had been waiting for him, like a fucking weirdo. Apparently his lack of a sex life made Eren’s _extremely_  interesting at this time.

“Was it any good?” Jean asked. “The sex, I mean. What’s it like fucking a Werewolf?”

“I don’t—really have anything to compare it to,” Eren insisted, rubbing the back of his neck. The action made his skin stretch over the wounds in his side and he winced, lowering his arm. “I mean, he was my first so... It was fucking amazing, but I can’t really say if it was better or worse than normal?”

“Did you guys go doggy-style?” Jean asked with a grin.

“No, and fuck you,” Eren replied, throwing a random bag of chips at him in annoyance. Jean caught it and took that as an invitation to open it and start eating them.

“What? Things I need to know!” The door opened and they both turned to it.

Levi had a weird expression on his face. It almost looked like Jean was going to catcall and make inappropriate jokes, but Levi’s gaze shifted to him for the briefest of moments and it had Jean mutter something incomprehensible before scuttling away to the office.

The door shut and silence fell, only the sound of the coolers in the back running breaking through the stillness of the store.

“Hey,” Eren said, wondering why this was awkward. Why was Levi looking at him like that?

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Huh?”

Levi stalked forward until he was right in front of him, standing on the opposite side of the counter. He looked crossed between angry and concerned.

“Why didn’t you tell me you’d never fucked anyone before?”

Eren’s mouth opened, ready to ask how he’d known that, then he realized that he and Jean had literally _just_  been talking about it. Levi must’ve been walking towards the door and overheard.

“It’s not a big deal,” Eren managed once he figured out how to speak again.

“I wasn’t exactly gentle,” Levi said through grit teeth. “You should’ve said something.”

“Why? I’m not made of porcelain. I managed just fine.” Eren crossed his arms, feeling a little annoyed Levi was acting like he was breakable. “Do I look like the kind of person who wants it soft and gentle or something? I thoroughly enjoyed last night, thank you, how about you not ruin this with your weird sense of chivalry.”

Levi didn’t look happy. He rarely did, but he looked _especially_  unhappy right then.

Eren sighed. “Look, you have a weird sixth sense thing going on when something is wrong with me, right? Did you feel that last night?”

There was a stiff shake of his head.

“Exactly. Which means it was fine. And it was. Better than fine.” Eren grinned. “ _Way_  better than fine. Except Mikasa totally heard so we’re never doing this at my house again.”

“Well I’m currently homeless, and I don’t think the horse will let us do it at his house.”

“True.” Eren chuckled. It slowly died down and he winced a little. “I’m sorry about the circumstances of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well... I feel like... I don’t know. I just don’t want you to think I just did it to get your mind off Erwin or anything.”

“I know that.”

Nodding once, Eren hit his fist lightly against the counter, then nodded his head towards the office. “Go get the idiot, would you? If you plan on keeping me company, we should probably tell him to leave.”

“Are you expecting me to ravish you at the store?” Levi asked, and Eren was relieved to see a small smirk forming on his face while he walked backwards, his hands in his pockets.

“Well, I _wasn’t_ , but if you’re offering...” Eren grinned.

Levi just let out a puff of air and turned, heading for the back to get Jean as the door opened.

He turned to it, a greeting on his lips when the words died in his throat.

Annie had just walked in. Which wouldn’t have been a bad thing if he hadn’t locked eyes with her just as she’d noticed all the hickeys on his neck.

And now she looked _pissed_.

It suddenly occurred to Eren that maybe Annie liked him. It wasn’t something he’d ever thought about before, but given how she’d been acting lately, and her anger at finding out he was seeing Levi the last time they’d spoken... It had completely escaped him that she was jealous.

Annie was jealous because Eren was in a relationship with someone that wasn’t her.

He’d had no fucking idea.

“Annie—”

“Don’t you have any shame?” she asked dryly, moving closer to the counter and standing right across from him, taking over the place Levi had just been seconds before. “Maybe wear a turtleneck next time. No one wants to see that shit.”

She reached out one hand and poked at one of his hickeys. It hurt a little but Eren didn’t take her hand away. He let her dig her nail against it for a few seconds before she pulled her own hand back.

“Are you property now?”

“What? No.” Eren winced. “He’s not allowed to give me hickeys?”

“He’s trying to flaunt the fact that you belong to him. You shouldn’t _belong_  to anyone, you’re not a _thing_.”

Eren didn’t really know how to respond to that. Levi had specifically said he wanted people to know who he belonged to, so he didn’t have an argument against her words. The thing was, Eren didn’t mind. Him belonging to Levi meant Levi also belonged to him. Besides, he didn’t know if this was some weird wolf thing. Wolves claimed territory, so maybe with Werewolves they also claimed people. And it wasn’t like Levi was aggressively possessive. Eren still hung out with other people without any problems, so really it wasn’t a toxic relationship. It wasn’t what Annie was trying to make it out to be.

“He just wants people to know I’m taken.”

“And he felt the best way to make that known was to mark your neck like that and cuff you to a bed.” She motioned towards his wrists and he crossed his arms self-consciously.

Was that what people thought? Looking at it from an outside perspective, he supposed this relationship looked somewhat abusive. Even Jean had thought Levi was hurting him at first, and the thought of people thinking that made him feel sick. Levi had never hurt him, not on purpose anyway.

Even now, after they’d fucked, he’d woken to a texted apology for having scratched his side, and that hadn’t even really hurt that much. It stung, but he knew Levi had just gotten _really_  into it. And, Jesus Christ, Eren had fucking bit into his shoulder. Broken skin and everything! The only difference between the two of them was that Levi healed quickly and Eren didn’t. Eren’s bitemark on Levi’s shoulder was gone, but Levi’s clawmarks on him were still there. If anything, Eren had been the violent one during this whole thing.

“It’s not like that,” Eren insisted, hearing frustration beginning to creep into his tone. He wished he’d kept the bandages on his wrists. They’d mostly healed, but now that they’d been removed, it made it easier for people to see the extent of the injuries. “It’s complicated.”

“He isn’t good for you, Eren,” Annie said, voice dark and threatening. As if she were going to do something about this relationship if Eren didn’t. “You deserve better.”

“Like who?”

Eren’s eyes shot up and he wished Levi had just stayed in the fucking office. He could obviously hear what was going on, did he really think coming out to face Annie was the best thing to do right now?

“Like you?” Levi asked, giving her an unimpressed once-over.

Giving Jean an annoyed look, his friend just offered him a helpless shrug, as if to say it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t control Levi. To be fair, nobody could really control Levi, considering he even went against Erwin sometimes and Levi respected Erwin leagues more than he did Jean.

“Nobody wants you here,” Annie said, crossing her arms and staring at Levi dispassionately. She seemed to have quickly mastered not looking him in the eye because she wasn’t as scared as she had been the last time she’d been there. “You’re not welcome, and all you’ve done since you got here was make life more difficult for Eren.”

“I don’t hear him complaining.”

“He’s too polite.”

“Is he?” Levi cocked one eyebrow in surprise. “I seem to have missed meeting that side of him.”

If he weren’t worried a fistfight was about to break out, Eren would’ve been insulted by that comment. As it was, he just settled with moving out from behind the counter to step between the two of them.

“I don’t even know what’s happening right now,” Eren insisted, looking between them, “but I need the two of you to take a step back. You guys haven’t even officially met, there’s literally no reason for you to be acting like this.”

“I’m interested in what she has to say,” Levi said darkly. “Please, girl who’s slapped and punched Eren in the face in my very presence, tell me more about how abusive I am.”

Annie stared at him without saying a word, almost as if she didn’t know how to retaliate without physically injuring him. Instead, she just shifted her gaze to Eren.

“Be careful, Eren. Loyalty isn’t something wild animals understand when you put two choices in front of them.”

Then she turned and walked out of the store, leaving Eren with absolutely no idea what the fuck that even meant.

* * *

Jean couldn’t help but wonder what the government would think if they were keeping track of his browsing history. He looked up a lot of weird things, but lately things have been _weirder_  than usual. Looking up the ingredients in concrete and how badly mold affected the respiratory system was one thing, but looking up what the difference between a Witch and a Caster is, and whether or not there were sure signs of someone being a Succubus was probably making them doubt Jean’s sanity.

Fuck, this entire thing was making _Jean_  doubt his own stupid sanity.

This whole thing was insane. Someone was after Eren. Levi was a Werewolf. Erwin was missing. Someone had tried to _kill_  Levi. What even was happening? Jean was going to be next, he could feel it. He was going to be next, and either get kidnapped, killed, or kidnapped _and_  killed. No way his luck was good enough to get him out of this. He was shit-deep now, he was screwed.

If he died because of Eren, he was coming back to haunt his ass. _Especially_  his ass, given Levi’s new fondness for it.

Jean’s fingers paused, a horrifying thought hitting him. Shit, did ghosts exist?

“Sure!” he threw his hands in the air. “Why the fuck not? Everything else exists, why the fuck not ghosts? Hey, while we’re at it, how about Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers and all those scary things! Why not?!”

Life was good. Great, even. He didn’t need to sleep ever again.

He wished his parents were here.

Hell, he wished even grumpy ass _Levi_  was here.

Alas, his parents were out of town, as usual. It was why Levi could stay without any problems, they weren’t really around much lately. And Levi, well, he was back in Trost once more to deal with the whole Erwin thing.

Maybe Jean could go stay with Eren and Mikasa. Or Armin even. Anything to avoid being alone.

He let out a shout and leapt a mile high when he heard a thump from downstairs, flailing in his chair before grabbing at a random binder on the ground and raising it over his head like a weapon, staring at his bedroom door.

Nothing for a moment, and then the doorbell rang.

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his bedroom door, wondering if this was a trick. Hesitating, he slowly got to his feet and inched open the door, still holding the binder over his head with one hand. He peeked out, looking both ways down the corridor.

Feeling relatively unsafe, he shut the door and hurried towards his closet, dropping the binder and digging through the back of his stored items until he pulled out a paintball rifle. He checked it to make sure there were still pellets left and then stood, shouldering it and moving back to his bedroom door. Peeking out once more, he made sure it was safe before padding through the brightly lit house to the stairs, descending them slowly, the doorbell ringing again. A double-ring this time, the person on the other side of the door clearly impatient.

Or dying. God, he hoped they weren’t dying.

Jean reached the front door and peeked through the peephole before relaxing and cursing, letting the paintball gun loosen in his hands. He unlocked the door and pulled it open, looking out at Eren.

“Are you _trying_  to give me a heart attack?”

“Your door was locked,” Eren said, seeming partly annoyed but mostly confused. “Your door’s never locked.”

“Yeah, well, I’m harbouring a fugitive Werewolf part-time and my parents are out, I’m just trying not to get killed,” he muttered, shutting the door and locking it, then peeking through the peephole once more to make sure no one—or no _thing_ —had followed Eren.

When he glanced back at his friend, he saw him staring at the rifle he was holding. Jean didn’t care if it made him look stupid, he felt _safe_  with the damn thing! Paintball pellets hurt like a hot damn!

“Sorry,” Eren said quietly. “I know none of you asked for this, and I... just, sorry.”

Jean shrugged, pulling the strap over his shoulder and leading the way towards the kitchen. His fear had made him work up an appetite. “It’s not your fault, dude. You didn’t ask for this.” He reached into the fridge and pulled out a beer, offering one to Eren. The other shook his head.

Shrugging again, Jean held it in one hand, setting the paintball gun on the counter, and then dug through the fridge until he produced half a cherry-pie, still in the pie plate. He paused for only half a second before pulling it out, dropping both it and the beer on the table and then grabbing a fork. He motioned across from him while he fell into his seat and began eating the pie right from the plate. His dad wouldn’t be happy, he was likely saving it. Jean would just buy him a new one.

“What’s up, little man?” Jean asked, mouth full of cherries. He chased the bite down with a sip of beer and made a face. “For future reference, cherry pie and beer are not a good combination.”

“Noted,” Eren said with a small laugh.

“Hey, how’s Levi doing?” Jean asked, taking another bite of pie. “Haven’t really seen him much. He comes by to shower and sleep, but that’s about it.”

“I don’t know,” Eren admitted in a quiet voice. “I mean, he _seems_  fine, but I think he’s just...” He shrugged and Jean’s chewing slowed.

He could understand. Levi was trying to keep everyone calm, keep the peace, stop the panic. But he’d almost died. He had literally almost _died_. If Jean hadn’t decided to check if he was home that day, if he hadn’t randomly driven up to his house with some notes...

Levi would be dead right now.

Jean chewed over something he’d been thinking for a while, not sure now was an appropriate time to bring it up, but with Levi out of town, it was his only real opportunity.

“We can trust him, right?” Jean asked quietly. “Levi, I mean.”

Eren glanced up from where he was looking down at his wrist, rubbing at a bruise. Jean wondered when he’d gotten that, but Eren was always injured nowadays so it was hard to keep track of all of them.

“Of course we can.”

“I’m just saying— _he_  says he’s the good guy, but what if he’s-what if he’s not?” Jean played with the label of his beer bottle. “What if whatever tried to kill him was trying to protect you as much as Levi claims he’s trying to protect you?”

He could tell the thought had never occurred to Eren, his eyes lowering and returning to the bruise on his arm, which he was still gently rubbing with his thumb.

“I feel safe with him,” Eren whispered. “Even before. Even when I didn’t know what he was. Being around him makes me feel... I don’t know.” He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I trust him. I trust him with my life. I would do anything he asks. Whatever’s out there, whatever wants me, it’s evil, and I trust that Levi is keeping me safe. I’m not saying this because I like him, I’m saying it because I mean it. Levi makes me feel safe, and I know he isn’t looking to hurt me.”

Jean picked absently at a cherry that had escaped the crust and slowly nodded. “Okay. If you trust him, then I’ll trust him, too.” He dropped the fork, suddenly losing his appetite. “Just trying to make sure we’re not all being tricked, here. If something truly _is_  after you, I don’t want to wake up tomorrow and find you gone and discover it was Levi’s doing.”

“I’m not gonna be gone tomorrow, Jean.” Eren sighed. “Mikasa wouldn’t let that happen, and you know it.”

“True.”

“Neither would you.”

Jean made a debatable noise, but he grinned at Eren, who knew he was obviously joking.

“Why’d you come by, anyway?” Jean asked, standing to put the pie away and tossing the fork into the sink. He missed, the item clattering along the counter. He ignored it, he’d clean the streaks of cherry pie off the marble tomorrow.

“Just checking up on you, making sure you’re okay.”

Jean turned after putting the pie away, giving Eren a weird look. “I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be? Nothing’s coming after _me_.”

“Yeah, but... I don’t know. You almost got eaten by a wolf, found out the Supernatural world exists, then saw someone almost die all in a short amount of time. It’s a lot to take in.” Eren shrugged again. “I just... I was worried about you.”

It felt nice to know that Eren cared about him so much. He grinned, picking up the paintball gun and moving over to Eren, clapping him on the shoulder.

“You’re a good friend, Eren. Something’s trying to get you, and you’re worried about me.”

“I’m worried about everyone,” he admitted.

Truthfully, Jean was, too. If Erwin was missing because of Eren, everyone was at risk. Jean also acknowledged that if whoever was after Eren _knew_  him, Jean was fucking screwed. He was the research guy. If anyone was going to figure this shit out, and find the same information as Erwin, it was him.

Well, he wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Paint pellet to the face and out his bedroom window he would go.

“Come on,” Jean said, picking up his beer and shouldering the strap for the gun. “Let’s go play some _MarioKart_.”

“Only for a bit,” Eren said, standing and following behind him. “I need to head home soon, or Mikasa will worry.”

“Wish Mikasa would worry about me,” Jean said, which earned him a punch to the kidney while he was halfway up the stairs.

At least things were normal enough for him to get abused. That was comforting.

* * *

Turning off the tap with his right hand, Eren rubbed at his face to attempt to get water out of his eyes. Drops of it still fell from the ends of his hair, but he ignored that and shivered when the cold air of the bathroom hit his skin, the warm water of the shower no longer keeping him comfortable.

Pushing back the curtain, he grabbed his towel and quickly began drying himself off, goosebumps spreading across his skin. He wasn’t particularly bothered by the cold, but only because his brain wasn’t really focussed on that.

He couldn’t stop thinking about Annie and Levi.

Levi, like Mikasa and Jean and Armin, was not a fan of Annie. He’d thought it was because of her hitting him, but realized his dislike of Annie stemmed from their first meeting. Which made no sense, since she hadn’t even spoken to Levi at all, and Eren hadn’t liked Levi in _any_  way the first time they’d met.

Yet Levi still insisted she was bad news and wanted him to stay away from her. A moot point, since Annie was still pissed at him, so it wasn’t like she was racing to his house on a daily basis to have chats with him. She wouldn’t even reply to his texts when he sent them, so the chances of him being around Annie were fairly slim.

Towel-drying his hair, Eren stepped out of the shower before replacing his towel and moving to the mirror. He grabbed his sweats off the counter, where he’d left them before entering the shower, and then pulled them on, mind still elsewhere.

Grabbing his toothbrush, he pulled the toothpaste over, popping the lid off, and was just about to put some onto the brush when he caught something on his wrist.

Turning it entirely so he could see his inner wrist, Eren felt his grip go slack and he dropped what he was holding into the sink with a clatter.

Green eyes stared down at the mark on his wrist, recognizing it as something he had seen his entire life. Recognizing it as something he had seen on Levi.

On the inside of his left wrist, where hours before at Jean’s house there had been a bruise, was a large triangle, etched into his skin in black ink. It was split into six smaller triangles within, three of which were filled in.

Eren hesitantly ran the fingers of his opposite hand against the mark, attempting to see if it would hurt to the touch. It didn’t. It wasn’t a tattoo, he was fairly certain he’d have felt that being done to him, nevermind he hadn’t been drunk lately to allow for something like that to happen without his knowledge, _and_  it had been a bruise mere hours before.

It didn’t hurt, and it didn’t seem raised off his skin. It seemed almost like it was just... his skin. Like that particular area of skin was always meant to look like that. He didn’t understand, his wrist had looked fine earlier.

What could possibly have happened between _MarioKart_  at Jean’s and his shower? And had it even been there before his shower? Maybe. He hadn’t exactly been paying attention to his wrist while undressing. Truthfully, if not for the fact he’d been about to brush his teeth, he may not even have noticed it before someone else did.

Panic suddenly set in, not understand what this was but with all the weird shit happening lately, and what he knew about his mother getting it, he could hazzard a guess.

“No. Nope. No way. Nope. Nope.” Eren bent down and pulled open the cupboard under the sink, rooting through the items he had there which belonged to a time that had passed. He was looking through a plastic bag when he finally found what he was looking for and pulled it out.

It was a leather cuff that Jean had gotten him for one of his birthdays. Eren used to wear it all the time in high school until someone had accused him of being suicidal and using the cuff to cover his scars. He’d stopped wearing it after that.

Now, he didn’t worry about what people might think. He slapped the cuff on, pushing the snaps into place and then checked to make sure it covered the mark. It did, the leather band wide enough that it completely covered every inch of the supposed tattoo.

Eren braced himself against the counter, feeling his heartrate increase and closed his eyes.

“If I can’t see it, it’s not there,” he whispered to himself. “This is nothing. It means nothing. If I can’t see it, it’s not there.”

He was never taking the cuff off. Especially not in front of Levi.

He had his mother’s fucking tattoo on his inner wrist, and it suddenly occurred to him that maybe Levi hadn’t gotten a tattoo, either.

This was something else entirely, and they really couldn’t be dealing with this right now.

“If I can’t see it, it’s not there. It’s not there. It’s not.”

Eren picked up his toothbrush and toothpaste with shaking hands and struggled to ignore the mark on his wrist, hidden beneath the leather cuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look how nice I am! Look how less cliffhanger-y this is! -proud smile-


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why does this chapter feel so long? I'm sorry :S
> 
> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

Fingers flew rapidly across a keyboard, eyes scanning back and forth to ensure no typos were found while continuing to work. The page broke, causing only the smallest of pauses before continuing on, typing away like their life depended on it.

After a few seconds, one hand left to grab at a cup of coffee, bringing it to pale lips while a head tilted back to still be able to see the screen while they drank. Once it was set down, both hands returned to the keyboard, intent on continuing what they had been doing when someone reached out and slammed the laptop shut, almost trapping moving fingers between the screen and base.

“Jesus fuck!” Jean yelled loudly enough for every patron in the coffee shop to turn and look at him.

“Language, Jean. Keep it PG-13,” Hannes called from the till, not even looking up or sounding mad. He was probably used to it after years of Jean there.

Jean himself looked up to see who had just ruined the sanctity of his laptop and found Sasha seated across from him to the left and Connie right in front of him, his hand still on the laptop after having forced it shut.

“What the hell, Connie?” Jean asked with an annoyed growl, slapping at his friend’s hand to make him back off.

“So either Mr. Newbie has found a new young, impressionable male to stalk, or he’s staying at your house,” Connie said in a low hiss, slowly taking a seat across from Jean and leaning closer. “What gives? A week ago he’s abusing Eren, and now you two are banging?”

Jean made a disgusted face. “Levi and I are _not_  banging. He’s just—it’s complicated. He needed a place to stay,” he muttered.

Connie and Sasha shared a look before scooting closer. “Is he... is he threatening you? Did he do something to make you let him stay?”

Raking a frustrated hand through his hair, Jean shook his head. “I offered. Look, it’s a long story, I can’t really get into it. Turns out it’s not him hurting Eren. He’s trying to _stop_  the person hurting him, but it’s proving difficult.”

The two across from him shared another look. When Sasha turned back to Jean, there was a fire in her eyes. Determination in the set of her shoulders.

“Who’s hurting Eren? Can we help?”

Jean frowned. “What?”

“Eren’s always been nice to us,” Connie explained. “In high school. You and him, with Armin and Mikasa. You four always looked out for us. You’ve always been nice to us. If someone’s hurting Eren, and Levi’s working to stop them, we want to help.”

As nice as hearing those words was, Jean felt guilty for not being able to give them anything to help with. It was a little hard to explain that they had no idea who was hurting Eren because he was asleep while it happened and they were trying to lure him out of his house.

Oh, and Werewolves existed, that too.

“Thanks guys, but we’ve—we’ve got it covered.” Jean’s eyes shifted to the door when it opened, seeing Carla walk in looking through her purse. Jean winced and slouched in his chair a little, hoping she wouldn’t notice him.

Mikasa had mentioned that their mother was becoming increasingly more concerned with the various injuries Eren seemed to have, as well as his general secrecy. The Jaeger family had always been particularly close, and he was sure her son’s change wasn’t sitting well with her.

“Jean.” He looked back at Connie when the other spoke. “If you need us for Eren, you let us know, okay? If you won’t tell us what’s going on, fine, we’ll live with that, but if something happens that we can help with, you tell us, okay?”

“Thanks Connie.” Jean slouched further when Carla hurried back out with a coffee, thankfully not noticing him. He suspected it was because he was in the back corner. He was harder to spot. “I’ll let you know if we need you.”

Connie nodded, then he and Sasha shared another look and stood, leaving the coffee shop. Jean let out a sigh and raked one hand through his hair again. He doubted Connie or Sasha could help. It would mean telling more people about Levi’s monthly problem, as well as what was after Eren.

Hopefully things would work out and nobody else had to get involved.

Or hurt.

Jean rubbed the back of his neck, feeling uncomfortable, then pulled open the laptop again, hoping against hope that he found something sooner rather than later.

He didn’t want anyone else to go missing, especially Eren.

* * *

Levi knew who was coming even before he stood to head for the door. He wasn’t really in the mood for a visit from Hanji, but after the day’s events, he couldn’t say he was too surprised. They were lucky to even catch him, he’d been about to head out in a few minutes to head back to Shiganshina. He’d only come up for the one thing, after all.

Opening the door as Hanji reached it, he frowned when he caught sight of what they held, but said nothing and moved aside to let them into Erwin’s apartment. He saw them inhale deeply, and winced, knowing what they were thinking.

The place was starting to lose his scent. Erwin had been missing for so long, the apartment smelled more like Levi than it did Erwin. It was disconcerting. The scent of their pack leader had always been a calming presence, but now...

“I heard from Mike,” Hanji said, moving to the kitchen and setting down what they were holding before turning to him. “And Moblit. Finally told the rest of the pack about Erwin?”

“It was time,” Levi said, shifting to close the door and then wandering towards them, hands in his pockets. “I didn’t want to worry anyone, but it’s been too long. More people knowing means more help finding him.”

Hanji nodded. “And Eren?”

He shook his head. “No. I don’t want too much of the pack involved with him. If things go wrong...” He grit his teeth, not liking the thought. “I don’t want the pack to protect him. It’s my job, not theirs.”

“But you’re in charge in Erwin’s absence. If something happens to _you_ —”

“Then you’re in charge. And then Mike. That’s how it works, Hanji.”

The corners of their mouth turned down, showing their displeasure, but they didn’t comment on it further. He could tell they were upset, especially since he’d almost died the other day.

Truth be told, Levi was feeling the weight of that, too. He did his best not to worry anyone, but he couldn’t help but be cautious around everything. Even Erwin’s apartment, which had once felt like a safe place, made him nervous. Whoever had taken Erwin had obviously known where he lived, and if they’d wiped his computer and placed his phone on the nightstand, they’d obviously entered the apartment and erased their presence.

Levi didn’t want to die. Especially now, with everything happening. He wanted to find Erwin. He wanted to save Eren. He wanted... _something_  with Eren. A future, if he even deserved happiness at this point. He wasn’t ready to roll over and let someone take him out. He would fight.

No one could destroy his happiness but him. He was _going_  to find Erwin, and he was _going_  to save Eren. No matter what.

“So how many people know?”

Levi looked over at Hanji when they asked this, frowning. “What?”

“Jean called while you were—” they made a vague gesture at him. “Who else knows?”

Sometimes, so many things happened at once that Levi forgot who knew things and who didn’t. He pressed his lips together. “Aside from Jean, Eren’s sister and their other friend, Armin.”

“Erwin won’t be happy.”

“Erwin’s never happy,” Levi grunted, taking a seat at the counter. “I almost killed Jean. Eren saved his life by getting between the wolf and his friend. It was hard to keep it secret after that. His sister and other friend were there when I told Jean.”

“Eren stopped the wolf.” For the first time since Erwin’s disappearance, a spark of excitement entered Hanji’s eyes. “How did that work? Was he injured at all? Did the wolf still try and go around him?”

“I don’t know, I was a wolf,” Levi said dryly. “No experimenting with Eren,” he added after a moment.

“You’re no fun,” Hanji pouted, leaning forward on the counter across from him. Their eyes strayed down to what they’d brought over and Levi sighed internally. No point in ignoring what was staring him in the face.

“No luck?” he asked, putting his hand on the laptop case containing Erwin’s computer.

“Sorry.” Hanji shook their head. “I’m not exactly a computer wiz. I can tell Erwin had an automatic backup for all his information, including emails and files, but I’ve been trying to restore the deleted items and haven’t had any luck.”

Levi tapped his fingers against the case, staring at it thoughtfully. “I might know someone who can help. His area’s more research, but it’s worth a shot.”

“At this point, I’ll take anything.” Hanji straightened, nodding to Levi before heading for the door. He heard it open, but not shut, and turned to look at his friend. Hanji was scowling down at the ground, looking angry, but before he could ask what was wrong, they turned to him.

“I know you love him, Levi. I know he means a lot to you. But don’t let yourself get killed for him when you don’t even know why you’re protecting him.”

Levi’s gaze hardened and he saw Hanji flinch. “I might not know why I’m so protective, but I know how I feel and I’m not going to let anything happen to him.” He pulled the laptop off the counter and stood. “We’ll find Erwin, and we’ll stop whatever’s after Eren. Nobody else is going to get hurt.”

“I hope you’re right,” Hanji said quietly. “Safe drive back.” They exited the apartment, and shut the door.

* * *

His chair was squeaking. Every time he rotated it slowly from side to side, it let out a loud squeak that was almost irritating but not enough that it made him get up and oil the chair.

Hands locked behind his head, Jean chewed on the end of a pen while staring up at the ceiling, slouched in his chair and ignoring the squeakiness of it. He was sure it was driving the Werewolf across the room insane, but he wasn’t dead yet and he was letting him stay in his room when someone was trying to kill him, so really, Levi could suck his dick.

Something about all of this bothered him. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but the more research he did, the more everything _bothered_  him. It was like his brain knew what was wrong but it was locked away in a part he couldn’t access. So instead he just sat there, frustrated and feeling like he was _missing_  something.

“Stop doing that, or you’ll be missing legs soon,” came the low rumble from across the room.

“Shouldn’t you be out fucking Eren or something?” Jean asked without missing a beat, still scowling up at the ceiling.

Witches. Casters. Witches. Why did this _bug_  him so much?

“He’s at dinner, his parents likely wouldn’t appreciate that.”

Jean just grunted in response, chewing harder on the pen between his teeth.

Casters. They weren’t usually malicious, just powerful. They liked power, being in control, having more than their fair share. Nothing he’d read about them suggested they were homicidal murderers.

Then again, he doubted the internet was up-to-date on the inner workings of a Witch’s mind. Caster’s mind? Whatever. He hated that they were called something else, it was stupid.

“What reasons would a Caster have for wanting Eren?” Jean asked, for what felt like the millionth time. It must’ve been close, because Levi didn’t quite manage to stifle his sigh.

“If I knew that, I would know how to protect him.”

Jean ignored his completely useless input of uselessness. He didn’t have time to listen to Levi bitch about the squeaky chair or complain about not knowing anything.

He knew that wasn’t fair, but he couldn’t help it. Jean wanted to protect his friend, and while he knew Levi wanted the same thing, he also acknowledged that his mind was a little divided. His own friend was missing and, oh yeah, someone had tried to _kill_  him. A fact Jean still couldn’t quite wrap his head around.

Levi acted like it was no big deal, but he could tell that the event had shaken him. He didn’t drink anything anymore unless it came out of a sealed bottle. He’d gotten very interested in Coke of late instead of tea, and always bought water bottles at the store. Jean could understand, he felt like it was actually amazing Levi wasn’t a complete wreck.

Chewing harder on the pen in his mouth, Jean had to wonder about what could possibly be important enough about Eren to kidnap a pack leader, try and kill a Werewolf, and force a weirdo to sleepwalk every night.

Power. Casters. Witches.

He frowned, a thought coming to him. “Say Levi?”

A sigh of exasperation, which Jean took as his cue to continue.

“Do you think there’s something about Eren that maybe the Caster wants? Like, power-wise? Is that a thing that’s possible?”

Silence. At first, Jean thought Levi was just ignoring him, but when he turned in the chair—squeaking all the way—he saw that the Werewolf was actually frowning, as if in thought.

“Maybe.” Levi pulled his phone out then, hitting a few buttons on the screen before placing it to his ear. Jean wasn’t sure who he was calling, but when the other person answered, he spoke. “Do you still have that Caster friend? The one who helped you with that problem two years ago?”

There was loud, boisterous speaking on the other end, suggesting it was Hanji.

“How many problems do you have that require Casters?” Levi asked monotonously, and were their circumstances not so dire, Jean might have been amused by the look on his face.

Okay, even in circumstances like this, he was still amused. Something Levi didn’t appreciate if the glare he sent his way was any indication. It was one of those scary glares that made his insides curl and his skin crawl so he quickly looked away, going back to his chewing.

“I’m talking about the Caster who helped you get rid of that ghost you pissed off when you went down to Mexico. The one who was ripping up your clothes and smearing shit all over your walls.”

Jean wondered for a brief moment if Levi meant shit metaphorically or actual, literal _shit_. The look of disgust on his face made him feel inclined he meant literal shit.

And then his brain acknowledged that he was talking about ghosts being real and that was okay, Jean didn’t like sleep anyway. He’d already assumed they existed at this point, so it was fine.

He stopped listening to the conversation for a little while, his brain thinking on other things related to Eren. He made a special effort to not listen in when the conversation shifted to Erwin, because he could tell how worried and upset Levi was about his disappearance, even if he didn’t talk about it in front of Eren.

That was probably a good thing. The last time Jean and Eren had talked about Erwin being missing, his friend had insisted maybe he should sleepwalk to wherever he was meant to go and hope he found Erwin. That had ended in a huge fight between the two of them, and Jean hated fighting with Eren. They always got very violent, and Eren played dirty.

Jean’s nuts still hurt at the mere thought of their fight.

“Jean.”

Snapping out of his thoughts, he turned to Levi, his tone suggesting he’d been trying to get his attention for a while.

“Yeah, what?”

“Are you any good at hacking?”

“Uh, no, why?”

The look Levi gave him made him feel like he’d just told him he wasn’t fond of puppies and Levi was deciding whether to maim him or not. He must’ve decided not to maim him, though, because he just returned to scowling at his phone, as if it had offended him more than Jean had.

Sighing, Jean pulled the pen from between his teeth and tossed it onto the desk behind him, rubbing at the back of his head. They _had_  said they wanted to help... “I might know someone who’s kind of, sort of into that,” he amended.

Levi looked back at him.

“I can ask them, if you need something?”

“It’s Werewolf related, so no.” Levi hesitated. “Can they teach you?”

“Maybe?” Jean scratched his cheek, thoughtful. “I could ask. I mean, they’re not great or anything, but their general knowledge is higher than mine.”

“I have a laptop in my car.” He paused, as if contemplating whether or not to disclose any more information, then seemed to decide it would be pointless not to, considering Jean would be working on it. “It belonged to Erwin.”

“You’re thinking you might find something out? About where he is, or why he was…?” He didn’t know how to end the sentence, so he let it hang.

“Yes.”

Jean was sure they would’ve lapsed into an awkward silence there, but were saved by Levi’s phone ringing. He answered it and Jean figured now was a good opportunity to text Connie.

**[Jean]**  
hey dude, need a solid. got a sec?

He threw his phone onto his desk and turned back to his computer, opening Google so he could look into hacking a little bit, but before he even typed a single word, his phone buzzed. He snatched it back up, checking the reply.

**[Connie]**  
i could make time 4 u  
**[Connie]**  
4 a price $$$

**[Jean]**  
hilarious. i need some tips on hacking

This response came more slowly, and for a second, Jean thought about calling him. Just as he was debating it, he received a reply.

**[Connie]**  
wut? idk how to hack…

**[Jean]**  
what happened to helping eren? don’t be a dick

**[Connie]**  
idk wut ur talking about idk how to hack

Jean was in the middle of responding with a really long and annoyed text about how he was serious and this wasn’t funny when there was a knock at his window. Levi didn’t even react, but Jean practically leapt out of his skin. Stupid Werewolves and their super hearing.

Turning to it, Jean found Connie waving at him through the window, crouched on the sloping portion of the lower half of his roof. Jean leapt from his chair and rushed over to it, wrenching it open.

“What the fuck are you doing here?! How did you get up here?!” He was more surprised that Connie hadn’t fallen and broken his neck. He didn’t need the moron dying on him.

“I’m always on your roof,” Connie said, looking confused. “Your neighbour doesn’t have a security lock on their WiFi.” That statement was accompanied by an impish grin. “Also, what is wrong with you?!” Connie reached through the window to smack at Jean. The angle was awkward and he barely managed to touch him, but the intent was clear.

“What?”

“You don’t just text me about hacking!” He leaned closer, lowering his voice. “The government is watching. Always watching. You trying to get me arrested?”

“You’re not even any good!”

“Says the guy who asked for lessons.” Connie snorted and leaned back a little. It made Jean nervous, and he really wished Connie wasn’t perched on his roof right then. Someone else’s roof, sure, moron could fall off that all he wanted. His? Not so much.

“You gonna help me out, or not?”

“Depends.”

“On?”

“What’s it for?”

Jean hesitated, turning to look at Levi. He was still on the phone, but it was obvious he was listening. Jean didn’t really know what to say, or how to explain, so he figured a half-truth would be best. He didn’t think it’d be a good idea to put Connie in danger.

“Someone’s computer got wiped out. We’re just trying to get the stuff back.”

“Sure, pass it over, and I’ll figure it out.”

“Uh, it’s kinda private. Like,” Jean lowered his voice, “promiscuous shit. Not something that should be getting out.”

Connie seemed even more intrigued, but he ended up shrugging and agreeing to show him a few things. They set up a time for the following day and then Connie left, clambering back up over the side of Jean’s roof that led up to the main portion. Jean really wondered if Connie was honest about hanging out up there all the time.

When he turned to head back to his desk, Levi wasn’t on the phone anymore, and he looked unhappy.

“What’s up?”

“A theory,” Levi said. “Hanji’s Caster friend thinks whoever’s after Eren could be a Succubus. Not sure how that works, but if they’re dormant and weakened, they could be trying to lure him out to get some strength from him.”

“But why him?” Jean insisted, falling back into his chair. He bit his tongue when he fell down too hard and winced, reaching out for the pen again and sticking it into his mouth. He did his best thinking with something in his mouth, anyway. Which he would _never_  tell anyone, or they would get inappropriate on him.

“Why him what?”

“There’s like, thirty virginal boyos in this town who’re itching for sex, why go for Eren? He’s made it pretty clear he’s not coming. Why not move on to someone else? Literally, they could have _anyone_  in this town, why Eren?”

Levi shrugged, seeming frustrated, as if suddenly realizing how right Jean was and hating that he hadn’t thought of it himself.

“Maybe they think Eren’s really, really hot and want to fuck his stupid ass specifically.”

Jean was literally a second away from laughing when the action died in his throat, eyebrows shifting downward into a scowl.

“Wait, what did you say?”

“It was a joke, Kirschstein.”

Jean straightened, spitting his pen out and grabbing his laptop, wrenching it closer. He went to his bookmarks and began hunting through the last few saved items before finding the one he was looking for, eyes scanning the words quickly. It... could be true. He could be right. If he was, that was insane, but it was possible, wasn’t it?

“Levi?” he asked slowly. “I think it’s Annie.”

“You think what’s Annie?”

“The Caster.” He turned to look at the Werewolf, who had shifted on the bed so he could have his phone clearly visible on one side, and his laptop open on the other so he could work on it. He was presumably writing. Or researching. Or staring at pictures of Eren, who knew? “I think the Caster is Annie.”

“I think you’re on crack.”

“It makes sense!” Jean insisted, jumping to his feet and moving to sit on the bed. He was obviously way too close for Levi’s taste because the Werewolf’s gaze shifted to him and amped up in intensity. He somehow managed not to care about it. “Levi, she and Eren were super close before you showed up, always hanging out, always making time for each other. Then you appear and suddenly he’s sleepwalking and trying to leave town. She lives out of town! And-and there’s the whole you guys dating thing! Eren told her you were together, and suddenly someone’s trying to murder you? She invites us to a party you tell Eren not to go to, and people suddenly all get injured without explanation or visible weapons? That was a total temper tantrum! It’s Annie!”

“Jean, you’re being ridiculous,” Levi insisted with what Jean assumed was supposed to be calm patience but came across as annoyed frustration.

“Dude, it makes sense! It makes total sense! She even said that comment! About wild animals! Aren’t you technically a wild animal? It makes sense!” he insisted, propelling back to his feet and rushing to his desk for his phone. “I’ll prove it! I’ll totally prove it!”

Snatching up his Iphone, he found Mikasa’s number and called it, putting it on speaker and moving closer to Levi. He looked tense, but seemed to relax marginally when Mikasa answered, as if he were worried about who Jean was calling.

_“You realize it’s dinner time, right?”_  Mikasa said in greeting. Honestly, he wasn’t sure she would answer and assumed she only did because she knew he was with Levi.

“So I think I know who the Caster is, and Levi thinks I’m crazy.”

_“You probably are,”_  was her ever-so-kind response. _“Who is it, then?”_

“Annie.” Jean launched into an explanation on why once more, finding more examples to give than he had a moment ago, and when he was done, he was so fucking proud of himself he wanted to give himself a cookie. He hoped they still had some in the cupboard because he didn’t feel like going out to buy any.

Maybe he could send Levi, kind of as a reward for being so smart.

Except Mikasa didn’t agree, and that promptly crushed all of his dreams of a Levi-gopher. She insisted it was unrealistic to think that Annie would be after Eren for malicious reasons when they’d known each other for years and she could’ve done something like this whenever she pleased without the Levi factor stopping her.

In addition, she didn’t know why Jean thought someone who was in love with Eren would want to hurt him. Which Jean hadn’t known. About the being in love thing, though it made a lot of sense now that he thought about it.

The more she spoke, the more deflated he became. He didn’t think he was wrong, but he didn’t feel as confident when nobody believed him. He would’ve called Eren about it, but given how much he and Annie had been fighting of late, mentioning her in front of him was a bad idea. She was still kind of a sore subject for him, not that any of the rest of them cared that she wasn’t around much anymore.

After being berated on both sides about how wrong he was—Levi and Mikasa were freakishly similar when it came to bashing him—he conceded defeat, but secretly vowed to talk to Eren. Somehow. Without pissing him off.

“Shouldn’t you be out watching Eren?” Jean asked once he’d hung up with Mikasa. Almost on her, if he was honest.

“It’s dinner time. You’re the researcher here, right? Make yourself useful and look up this Succubus theory for me.”

Jean missed his normal life.

* * *

_“—inking that I could just get a bunch of lessons from Connie about it, because it’s pretty easy when you really think about it—”_

“Uh huh.”

_“—and if Sasha can learn how to do it, pretty much anyone can. But did you know they’re actually pretty good? Like, I was with Connie for a few hours today and he was showing me all this shit that like—”_

“Uh huh.”

_“—I never would’ve thought about. Computers are scary, you can ruin a man’s life with a computer. Do you know how much we rely on them? I could steal all of your money and you’d be screwed and—”_

“Uh huh.”

_“—you’re not even listening to a word I’m saying at all.”_

“Uh huh.”

_“I could literally be sucking your boyfriend’s dick right now and you’d be ignoring me all the same.”_

“Uh huh.”

_“Eren!”_

His knees bashed into the underside of his desk and he cursed, wincing at the pain of it and snatching his phone up, taking it off speaker and putting it to his ear. “What? I was listening.”

_“So it’s okay for me to suck Levi’s dick?”_

“Yes!” Wait. “No! What?”

_“Dude, what is **wrong**  with you right now? Don’t space out on me when I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you while looking through your boyfriend’s best friend’s computer.” _

“Stop calling him my boyfriend,” Eren muttered, looking down at the inside of his left wrist at what had been distracting him since the call had started. He’d taken to removing the cuff and staring at the mark whenever he was alone over the past forty-eight hours, mostly to see if there was any change to it.

There wasn’t. It was still there, dark as ever.

Every time he saw it, a stab of panic raced through him and he wanted to run down to his mother and ask her what it meant. He didn’t, but only because he didn’t know how to explain it to her. What if she didn’t know about Werewolves and Casters and evil things that go bump in the night? Not that Werewolves were evil, but they also weren’t exactly cuddly little animals you could hold to your chest and coo at. Granted, he could do that with Levi, but he wouldn’t even _think_  of doing that with Erwin.

He liked his face whole and un-mauled.

_“Whatever,”_  Jean muttered on the other end. _“You know we’re doing this for you, right? Levi almost died and Erwin’s missing. The least you could do is act like you give a shit about yourself and the risks we’re all taking to keep you safe.”_

Eren winced, knowing he’d obviously hit a sore spot for Jean. It was true that his friend had been amazing since this had all started, and he hadn’t exactly been present for most of the work. Everyone was doing this to keep _him_  safe, and he was just sitting in his room obsessing about a not-tattoo.

Granted, it was kind of a big deal, but Jean didn’t know that, because Eren hadn’t told him.

He was scared to tell anyone.

_“Sorry,”_  Jean said when the silence stretched. _“I was outta line.”_

“No, you weren’t.” Eren rubbed his face with his free hand, sighing heavily and rubbing the back of his head. “I’m just—I have a lot on my mind.”

_“Yeah,”_  his friend said. _“Hey, did you know Connie and Sasha hang out on my roof?”_

Trust Jean to segue into something random. “Yeah, they’re there all the time.”

_“What, seriously? Why didn’t you ever tell me?”_

Eren frowned. “Are you serious? Dude, they’re there _all_  the time. I figured you knew. How did you _not_  know? I’m pretty sure the whole _town_  knows. They use your neighbour’s free wi-fi.”

_“How do they get up there?”_

“Fuck if I know, I always assumed you let them up through a window on the second floor.”

_“Well, Werewolves and Vampires and Witches exist so, hell, maybe they’re Angels.”_

“Does Connie look like an angel to you?”

A pause.

_“Maybe like a little flying devil-thing?”_

“Maybe you should get back to work.”

_“Maybe **you**  should get back to work!”_

“I’m at home, genius.” Eren sighed. “I’ll call you later.” He hung up before Jean could say anything else, setting his phone down and staring at his wrist.

He knew it was unfair of him to pretend like he had nothing he could be doing, but he could barely think straight right now so helping was out of the question. Jean was good at what he did, and now that he had another skillset, he’d probably have Erwin’s computer cracked in no time. Provided the people who’d done whatever they’d done weren’t as computer-savvy as Jean—and, by proxy, Connie—maybe they’d know who had Erwin before anything else had the chance to ha—

“Oh my God.”

Eren whipped around, jerking to his feet so that his chair toppled over sideways, eyes wide and staring at Armin. He’d been standing right behind him, Eren too distracted to even hear him enter the room. His eyes shot to the window, wondering if he’d missed something dangerous, heart thumping wildly in his chest, but when he glanced back at Armin, his friend was still gaping at him.

“What is it?” he asked uncertainly.

“Eren... What’s that?”

Eren’s hands shifted so he could clench his fists behind his back. “What’s what?” he asked, trying for innocence, despite knowing he was failing miserably. There was no way Armin hadn’t seen the mark on his wrist. There was no way Eren could talk himself out of this one.

He should’ve locked his door.

The two of them stared at one another for a long while, Eren feeling his anxiety begin to rise. Armin never asked to see it, he just watched Eren, concern pinching the corners of his lips before he rubbed at his left arm uncomfortably.

“Who have you told?”

“No one,” he admitted quietly.

“When did you get it?”

Eren considered not answering, but really, what good would that do? “The day before last.”

“It’s not a tattoo, is it?”

“No.”

“And Levi’s?”

Shrugging and averting his gaze, Eren shifted his hands behind his back to cover the mark, trying to swallow down his panic. This could mean anything. _Anything_. Maybe it just meant he was at a good time in his life to sire children. It didn’t have to mean... it didn’t... well...

“I’m—concerned,” Armin said slowly, as if worried to speak the word aloud.

“We’re all concerned,” Eren muttered, turning back to his desk to snatch up his cuff and slapping it back onto his wrist.

“Eren, you need to tell someone.”

“I’m telling you.”

“Someone who knows something,” Armin insisted. “Your mom, or—”

“No!” Eren turned to him sharply. “If she knew anything about this, she’d have mentioned something when Levi got his. I don’t want anyone else involved, it’s too dangerous.”

“Mikasa, then. We need to tell Mikasa.”

Eren said nothing and his friend took a step closer.

“Eren, I know you’re worried about everyone else. I am, too. I’m worried about everyone involved. But you’re _part_  of the people involved. I’m worried about you, too. This could be nothing. It could be everything. You can’t keep secrets, Eren. Not now.”

He rubbed at the mark over the cuff, fingers pushing against the leather before he licked his lips and nodded jerkily.

“Mikasa, then,” he acquiesced. “But _only_  Mikasa. You don’t breathe a word of this to Levi, got it?”

Armin nodded. “I promise.”

* * *

Levi tapped his phone idly against his knee while looking slowly around the room. Every few seconds he inhaled deeply, as if trying to catch something he would’ve missed the last hundred times he’d done this, but nothing had changed barring the ever-fading scent of Erwin.

His eyes travelled along every inch of space viewable from his spot on the edge of the perfectly made bed and he tried to find something out of place by sheer force of will.

Hand tightening around the phone, he forced himself to loosen it when he heard the plastic cracking. He didn’t need the stress of going out to find a new phone, especially not now. It was his only means of communicating with Mikasa, Armin and Eren.

And Jean, he supposed, but he tried not to think much about him. He was still pushing the “It’s Annie!” card to the point where Levi was starting to ignore him whenever he spoke.

The only good news he’d gotten of late was that Jean had finally started working on Erwin’s computer. It had only taken him a few days to figure it out enough to start taking a crack at it, which Levi appreciated since no one he and Hanji knew had been able to retrieve anything.

It wasn’t like they could bring the computer into a Best Buy and ask for help.

Not that he had high hopes for Jean, but if his friend really _could_  hack—which was a step up from Levi’s friends who worked with computers but didn’t “hack”—then maybe they could find _something_.

He was glad to have Jean doing something useful, considering the past week had consisted of him being a useless little shit chasing after Annie. If Levi hadn’t been positive about his love for Mikasa, he would’ve suspected Jean liked _her_  instead.

“Hey.”

Levi didn’t acknowledge Hanji when they crossed their arms and leaned sideways against the doorframe.

“Did you call him?”

“He’s on his way,” they confirmed.

He nodded stiffly, scowling at the decision he’d made, but knowing he didn’t have a choice. Erwin was missing, he could be dying. Levi was going to do whatever he had to in order to find him, and if Erwin didn’t forgive him for this, well, at least he’d be alive enough not to forgive him. Levi felt like he could live through Erwin hating him as long as he was still alive.

They remained silent while waiting, both of them looking around the room as if they hadn’t already done that a million times before.

It took less than half an hour before the phone rang. Hanji left the room to answer it, speaking quietly into the receiver before buzzing the front door. Levi didn’t move from where he sat until someone knocked on the front door, then stood to head for the entrance. As he walked into the kitchen, Hanji led Zackly through the small apartment to the living room. Levi moved to follow, sitting down in one of the armchairs and crossing his arms, bringing one leg up to rest his ankle against his opposite knee. Zackly took the couch with Hanji sitting on the opposite end.

“Hanji says you wanted to speak to me,” the old man said, glancing around briefly. The look on his face suggested he recognized that Erwin hadn’t been home in a while based on the smell.

“Erwin is missing.”

Zackly’s gaze shot back to him, eyes widening slightly behind the frames of his glasses. “Is that so?”

“You and him have always had a mutually beneficial relationship. I thought you could get the word out, help me get help finding him.”

The pack leader was silent for a long while, as if contemplating Levi’s request. As if wondering if he could get away with taking over Erwin’s territory.

He either wasn’t thinking that at all, or decided against it, because he said, “Spreading the word may be a bad idea. People with less—respect than me might see that as an invitation to invade his territory.”

“Tell them I’m in charge of protecting it.”

“Everyone knows you’re protecting the boy.”

Hanji and Levi shared a look at that. He hadn’t realized his overprotectiveness had been so widespread, but when he thought about it, it made sense. He’d made a bit of a show about it at the last pack leader meeting, and he was sure the pack leaders had told their packs, who had probably shared around. It wasn’t that surprising when he considered that.

“Hanji and Mike are watching the territory, too.”

“True, but while I am aware of their capabilities, other people may not consider them to be enough of a threat not to attempt to take over the territory.”

“Erwin is missing,” Hanji snapped, clearly losing their temper. Whether it was because of Zackly brushing off their ability to protect the area, or because they were tired of listening to this when they could be out looking for Erwin, Levi wasn’t sure.

“Erwin is a pack leader,” Zackly said, authority in his voice that had Hanji shrink back slightly. “His territory and his pack are his top priority.”

“His life is ours,” Levi said darkly. “I’m willing to face the consequences if he returns to an overrun territory. I want the word out, I want him _found_.”

“There are other ways. I have a Caster friend—”

“A Caster has him.” Levi didn’t know that this was true, but he was fairly certain of it. He still didn’t believe Erwin was dead, not yet, but he was going to be if they didn’t find him soon. “We have our own resources, you don’t think we’ve tried that already?”

He was losing his patience and beginning to think that Zackly was useless to them and they were wasting their time. Just when he was about to voice this, Zackly spoke again, asking for more details. Levi and Hanji began to explain, but they kept everything vague for the most part, not trusting him enough for the whole story. When he made it clear he wasn’t going to help them without the full shebang, Levi reluctantly started from the beginning.

While he wasn’t happy about it, he liked that it made it look like Zackly was more onboard with helping them, and by the time they’d finished, he was nodding and agreeing to help. Which was really all they’d wanted to begin with and Levi was frustrated they’d had to waste so much time talking about everything with him.

“Where’s the boy now?”

“With friends. They know about the Caster.” He was careful not to mention that they also knew about Werewolves.

Zackly was nodding, muttering under his breath about Casters and technology. Apparently he wasn’t very savvy either, but did mention another pack he knew of full of “young ones” he would touch base with. If Jean couldn’t find anything, Levi was willing to let someone else try. Someone else like _them_ , anyway.

“I’ll have my pack help with the territory. I’ll make it clear anyone coming after Erwin’s area is going to deal with two packs instead of one.”

“Thank you.” Levi was surprised at how sincere he sounded. He honestly hadn’t expected much from Zackly, but figured he should have. He and Erwin had a good relationship, even if Levi didn’t like him much.

They were in the middle of discussing logistics and how to split the territory supervision when Levi’s phone rang. He checked it and felt a burst of panic when he saw Jean’s name. Eren would call if something was wrong, but Jean would call if something was wrong _with_  Eren.

Standing instantly, he answered and rushed away from the living room, not wanting to be overhead. A moot point, really, since Hanji and Zackly would have no problem hearing but the perception of privacy was better than nothing.

“What happened?” he demanded, entering Erwin’s room and shutting the door.

_“I’ve been following Annie all day, and she’s been buying some really weird shit!”_

Levi was going to kill Jean if he was calling him, making him almost panic, just to talk about his stalker tendencies.

_“She bought a bunch of Allspice from a store, like, a **bunch**  of Allspice, and like, what does she even need Allspice **for**? And I also noticed her buying a butcher’s knife. Why is she buying a butcher’s knife? Who buys butcher knives except butchers?!” _

“Jean.”

_“And I lost her when she was heading home, like, in the general direction of home, but when I went to her place, she wasn’t there! I checked Bert and Reiner’s places, and she’s not there either. She’s not anywhere she’s meant to be and, get this: I find her at the store! Talking to Eren! I’m telling you, it’s weird! She buys Allspice and a butcher’s knife, and then visits Eren? She’s totally out to get him! She’s either looking to make him dinner or, you know, looking to make him **dinner** , if you get what I mean. Neither of which is a good thing! Besides, he’s too fatty, he wouldn’t make a good meal.”_

“Have you made any progress on the laptop?”

_“A program is running, I’m gonna check it later.”_

“Jean. You’re going to go home right now. And check the laptop. If you don’t, I’m going to kill you.”

_“She’s coming out, I gotta go.”_

Jean hung up. Levi was going to murder him.

He called him back, but it went straight to voicemail. Trying to remain calm when the line beeped, he spoke.

“Jean. I am literally going to murder you and hide your body in the woods if you don’t do as I said. Don’t test me.”

He hung up, took a breath, and then headed back out into the living room.

* * *

When Levi returned to Shiganshina two days later, it was close to six in the morning. He was exhausted and hadn’t slept for what felt like hours. He desperately wanted a shower, but he wasn’t willing to do that until he’d checked on Eren. He didn’t like being away from him, but Eren’s life wasn’t the only one in danger right now. Erwin’s was, as well, and Eren seemed to understand that.

He wished Eren would be more selfish about it and give Levi an excuse to be around more. Levi knew it was his own guilt at splitting his time between them that was making him wish that, but it was difficult for him. His instincts wanted him to protect Eren, as did his personal feelings for him, but his duty and _also_  personal feelings for Erwin made him want to find his friend. It was confusing and conflicting and he hated it.

Parking the truck outside the store, he climbed out and entered to find Eren dozing behind the counter. The sound of the door opening startled him awake and his sleepy expression melted into a warm smile when he saw Levi.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” Levi moved behind the counter and pressed his lips against Eren’s, the kiss soft and lingering. Eren didn’t seem to like those, insisting he wasn’t fragile and breakable, but Levi’s absence seemed to have made him more accepting of it this time around.

“How are things going in Trost?” he asked when they finally broke apart, Eren leaning back against the counter. Levi pressed himself against him, wanting to keep him close. He placed his hands on the counter on either side of Eren.

“So far so good.”

Levi had never cared much about being short. He’d never had an opinion on it, and hadn’t even minded when Isabelle was a few inches taller than him. For some reason, it bugged him with Eren. It made him feel less adequate somehow.

“Any word on Erwin?”

Levi felt those words like punches to the gut but he managed not to show Eren how much they hurt.

“Not yet.” Levi leaned forward, brushing his cheek against Eren’s, moving one hand to rub lightly at his right wrist. “Jean’s still working on the laptop. Said he thought he was getting something when we spoke last.” His jaw clenched when he remembered the last few conversations he’d had with him. “He’s obsessed with—”

“Annie?” Eren interjected, sighing and reaching out one hand to wrap his fingers around one of Levi’s forearms. He let his hand trail up and down slowly, as if just wanting to touch him. His eyes followed the movement of his own hand along Levi’s skin.

Levi noticed him wearing a large leather cuff on his wrist that he didn’t remember seeing before. He wondered if Eren had handcuffed himself to the bed and hurt himself again. The cuff was a good way to hide any injuries, not that Levi was happy to think about that.

“I know,” Eren continued, uninterrupted by Levi’s observations. “He’s called every time she’s been on her way here.”

Levi tensed. “She’s been here more than once?”

“A few times. Same conversations, mostly.” Eren shrugged. “She wants me to break up with you.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Are you going to?”

Eren’s hand stilled and he gave Levi an annoyed look. The Werewolf just stared at him, feeling like it was a valid question. Eren had been friends with Annie for years, Levi was just someone he’d recently met. They may have had an interesting relationship to date, but Levi would never make Eren choose between him and his friend, even if he hated Annie.

“Just asking.” Levi leaned in to kiss him again, but was interrupted by the door opening. They both turned to look at it and Levi recognized the man walking in.

He was wearing a police officer’s uniform, one hand on his holstered gun, and he looked extremely uncomfortable. It was the same officer who’d been at Eren’s house the morning Levi had driven him home after Erwin had tried to kill him.

He wasn’t very old, probably in his early forties, but the job made him look a lot more aged. His dark hair hung loose and greasy around his ears and over his forehead, and his stubble was haphazard, almost as if he didn’t have the ability to grow it properly or kept missing spots while shaving.

“Nile,” Eren said, not seeming to recognize the discomfort the way Levi did. “What’s up? Lock yourself out of your car again? You can use the phone if—”

Eren cut off when another officer walked in. Levi didn’t recognize this one, but they looked a lot more threatening than Nile, eyes narrowed in Levi’s direction and hand tightening along the butt of their gun.

“Mr. Ackerman?”

“Yes,” Levi said, wondering why they’d bothered asking. He was the new guy, everyone knew who he was. “Can I help you?”

“We’re going to need you to come down to the station with us.”

The door opened again and Eren’s father walked in, looking angry. “I told you to wait for me to get here,” he snapped, moving past the officers and towards the counter.

“What is going on?” Eren asked slowly, looking between the officers and his father, who’d moved behind the counter to place a large hand on his son’s shoulder. His own hand had tightened around Levi’s forearm, nails digging into his skin but he barely felt it. “What is this?”

“Mr. Ackerman, we’d rather not drag you down there in handcuffs,” Nile said, seeming to try and keep the situation from escalating. “We just have a couple of questions for you about Jean Kirschstein.”

It felt like he’d swallowed wolfsbane again at those words, his stomach dropping.

“What?” Eren asked, voice sounding weird. Strained. “What about Jean? What happened to Jean?!”

“Eren—”

“What happened to him?!” Eren demanded again, interrupting his father, turning to him desperately. “Where’s Jean?! What happened to Jean?!” He started to try and push past Levi to get to the officers, but the Werewolf forced him to stay put. Whatever was happening, for the moment it seemed particularly bad, and he didn’t want Eren to do something stupid.

“I need you to stay calm,” Levi ordered, forcing Eren to look at him by giving him a hard shake. “Stay calm, and stay with Mikasa. Don’t you _dare_  disobey me this time.”

“Mr. Ackerman—”

“I heard you,” he said, eyes still locked on Eren, trying to burn the order into his brain. “I’m coming.”

He slowly released his hold on the brunet, then turned and headed for the officers while Grisha crushed his son to his chest, murmuring words of comfort even as Eren’s breathing began to quicken.

The officers were polite enough not to handcuff him, but he still had to sit in the back of a police cruiser. He was uncomfortable with the number of people who seemed to have shown up to watch, whispering to one another too low for human ears to hear, but not enough for his sharp senses to pick up.

He waited until they were halfway to the station before speaking to the officer Eren had called Nile, who was sitting in the front. The other officer was in another cruiser behind them.

“What exactly am I being questioned for? What happened to Jean?”

The man didn’t respond, instead continuing to drive in silence. Levi didn’t mind, he knew he wasn’t in any danger at the moment. The full moon was still a week and a half away, and jail seemed fairly safe for him. Neither of these officers seemed to be the person after Eren, so he wasn’t particularly concerned at the moment. He would be able to handle both of them at the same time if it came down to it.

Though he _was_  a little worried about why he was being arrested. Kind of. Brought in for questioning, but it felt like being arrested.

He’d been staying at Jean’s for the past few days he’d been in town, and if something had happened to him, hopefully it would be easy for everyone to figure out he was innocent in all of this.

Which had seemed a lot easier to imagine before they’d put him in an interrogation room and shown him pictures of Jean’s trashed bedroom, along with his phone.

And had replayed the last message Levi had sent him.

That had been followed up with questions about where in the woods Levi had buried him.

Whoever was out to get him really wasn’t pulling any punches.

* * *

Eren stared down at his phone, thumb hovering over the screen so that when it went dark he could tap it back to life once more. His chest felt weird. Achey, and hollow. His brain felt like it was frozen, thoughts coming sluggishly, if at all. He couldn’t figure out how to react in this moment, so he was just sitting on his bed in his room with the lights off staring at a picture of Jean on his phone.

There weren’t very many details being shared, but Nile had called Eren’s father to find out where he was, along with Levi. People always assumed Eren and Levi were together a lot which, to be fair, they tended to be. Grisha had tried to beat Nile to the store, but it was hard to beat a cop car, especially one with the sirens on, no matter how close the Jaeger household was to the store. Nile may not have had the sirens on when he’d reached the store, but he’d probably been in the car while on the phone with Grisha, and had likely had them on to get as close as he dared without tipping Levi off.

Eren didn’t even know who was manning the store right now. All he knew was that his father had driven him home and he felt numb inside.

This was his fault. He knew it was his fault. Erwin had found something out, and had gone missing. Jean had been working on Erwin’s laptop, and now he was missing? That wasn’t a coincidence, that was a pattern. Erwin had found something that whoever was after Eren hadn’t wanted anyone to find, and now two people were missing.

Maybe dead.

Eren felt like he was going to be sick. Jean was missing. His room had been trashed. His laptop had been destroyed. He didn’t even know how to handle the emotions going through him. A part of him wanted to cry. Another part wanted to scream and destroy everything. Mostly, he just felt empty. He felt like he wanted to blame someone for this, but that was difficult to do when the only person worth blaming was himself.

And the worst part was that everyone was convinced it was Levi. The one person it _couldn’t_  have been. But because Eren could only prove he’d been with him for a few minutes, the alibi didn’t stick. Levi couldn’t prove his exact return time to Shiganshina, which meant that there was a huge window of opportunity between his last shot on a traffic camera and showing up at the store.

Eren knew it wasn’t Levi. He _knew_  it wasn’t. But how was he supposed to prove that? He felt like people around him were dropping like flies. Erwin, Jean, Levi... He wanted to tell Mikasa and Armin to leave, go somewhere else, take some time away.

They wouldn’t, he knew they wouldn’t, but he didn’t want anyone else getting hurt. Especially because of him.

He was still sitting staring at the picture when Mikasa knocked on the door half an hour later. She entered when he didn’t respond, spilling light into the room. She stood in the doorway, leaning against it with her arms crossed. She looked younger somehow, like the experience had made her lose a few years. Maybe it was just the feeling of helplessness that made her look like a child, once again unable to stop something horrible from happening to someone she cared about.

She may put up a front when Jean was around, and Eren knew they would never be anything more than friends, but they _were_  friends, as much as she tried to deny it. This wasn’t just affecting him.

“This is my fault,” he said quietly, looking at the picture on his screen. “Jean is gone, and it’s my fault. I did this. What if he’s dead? What if he never comes back? I should’ve just let the voice take me, should’ve told Levi to mind his own business. If I could just talk to this person, figure out what they want, maybe I can—”

It happened so suddenly that for a second he wasn’t entirely sure what had made him stop talking. Mikasa was in front of him, and he felt pain slowly spreading across his cheek. She had slapped him, hard enough for it to feel like his brain had been displaced in his skull.

“Is this what you’re gonna do?” she asked, voice low and shaking with anger. “Sit here in the dark feeling sorry for yourself? Nobody else is going to feel sorry for you.” He saw her hands clench into fists, shaking. “Jean is _missing_. Levi is in jail. Instead of sitting here feeling sorry for yourself, how about actually helping us do something about it?”

“What am I supposed to do?!” Eren shouted, lurching to his feet and getting right in her face. He expected her to back down, but she didn’t. She just stood her ground, giving him a look so similar to Levi’s that it knocked all the air out of him.

“Not this,” she insisted angrily. “Eren, do you really think what Jean would want right now is for you to go out and get yourself killed? He was looking up ways to keep you safe, and you suggesting you give up right now is like spitting in his face. Jean is _gone_.” Her voice broke at the last word, and it made something crack in Eren’s chest. “The last thing he would want is you to be sitting here in the dark feeling sorry about how shitty your life is. So get your shit together, stop moping around in the dark, and help us _find_  him.”

When she turned to leave, she slammed his bedroom door behind her so hard that the door cracked, a sliver of light peeking through a split in the wood. He didn’t even know that was possible to do, but apparently it was if you were an angry Mikasa.

Looking down at his phone, at Jean’s stupid grin, he clenched his hand around the mobile device and then turned to throw it onto his bed. Slapping his face harder than he’d intended with both hands, he let out a breath and then strode to the door, pulling it open.

He almost walked into Armin and Mikasa, who’d been heading for her room. Armin had a laptop bag that he was clutching like his life depended on it. He looked pale and scared, and it made Eren’s chest clench again.

Jean wasn’t only _his_  friend. This wasn’t _only_  about him. He felt selfish for not having clued in to that sooner.

“Hey,” he said, reaching out to put one hand on Armin’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“No,” he said honestly, continuing after Mikasa to her bedroom.

Eren followed behind them and shut her door once he entered. Mikasa took a seat at her desk and Armin sat down on her bed. Eren stood awkwardly by the door for a few seconds before going to join Armin on the bed, watching him carefully set the laptop bag down in front of him and pulling it out.

“What is that?” Mikasa asked. Presumably, Armin had asked to come over without providing any background as to why. At least Eren wasn’t the only one in the dark.

“It’s Erwin’s laptop,” Armin said quietly, setting it down on top of the bag.

Eren felt like someone had just electrocuted him. “What? I thought that it was destroyed! They said that they’d found two laptops at Jean’s place.”

“The other one was Levi’s,” Armin said quietly, letting out a shaky breath. “Jean gave this to me last night. Came over and was acting all weird and scared. Said he was almost done running a recovery program but that he was worried about the laptop. I thought he was being paranoid, but now...”

Eren felt like his heart was beating hard enough to leave an imprint on his chest. Jean had been about to find something huge and had felt like he was being watched. Instead of ignoring the feeling, or telling anyone, he’d instead gone to Armin with the only clue they would have to finding Erwin and had asked him to hang on to it.

That meant Jean had _known_  he might go missing. He’d known his life was in danger. But he hadn’t said anything about it, because he was on the verge of finding something big. He was banking on his friends finding him.

Eren wasn’t going to let him down. He would find Jean if it killed him, though hopefully not since that would kind of defeat the purpose.

“What did he find?” Mikasa asked before Eren could get his mouth to form the proper movements to ask himself.

“It’s still running,” Armin said, opening the lid and hitting the power button. The screen woke up from sleep mode and he typed in a password, something he had evidently gotten from Jean, who had likely gotten it from Levi.

When it loaded, it showed a program’s progress on most of the screen. It was at eighty-seven percent, and it looked like it was moving remarkably slowly. Some files seemed to have been recovered, though, and Eren had to wonder if any of those were the reason he was missing.

“Can I see?” he asked.

Armin handed him the laptop, eyes skirting to Mikasa before he shifted and hit a button on the screen. It opened a word program, and it already had something written in it. Eren thought it might have been a message from Jean, but reading through it made it clear it was Armin. Evidently he’d done this to ensure he could relay a message to Eren quietly.

_Please don’t say anything about the Ackerman file. I already looked at it, we can talk about it later._

Eren said nothing, but he closed the word program, informing it he didn’t want to save the document, and then let his eyes find the file in question. He didn’t open it, deciding to move it somewhere else so Mikasa wouldn’t see it if she joined them on the bed. It wouldn’t allow him to do so because the recovery program was still using it, so he just moved the program’s window over to cover the folder.

“Do you think Erwin found out who the Caster was?” Eren asked, trying to keep things away from being _about him_.

“Maybe. Jean definitely did, though,” Armin said quietly.

“He did?” Mikasa and Eren asked in unison, staring at Armin.

“I didn’t believe him at first—but I think he’s right. I think it’s Annie.”

“It’s not.” Mikasa seemed to sag back into her chair, disappointed. “After he went missing, I followed her all day. She didn’t do anything out of the ordinary aside from drive to our house and sit outside for a few hours. I think she wanted to come in and speak to Eren, but wasn’t sure of her welcome. She ended up leaving. I followed her home. Nothing suspicious in her activity at all.”

Armin looked ready to cry. It was like that was the only clue he had, and Mikasa had effectively ripped it right out of his hands and stomped all over it. At least it meant both of them had been thinking the same thing about Annie after Jean had been missing.

They must’ve been out doing things while Eren was moping in his room. He felt like shit for having been throwing himself a pity party while his best friend was missing. But that was going to change now. First they had to figure out what they could about Jean. While also figuring out how to get Levi out of jail.

“What about Levi?” he asked, breaking the silence. “Do we know how we’re going to get him out?”

“Hanji called me earlier,” Mikasa said, which made Eren jerk slightly, as though he’d been slapped. Why hadn’t Hanji called _him_? He tried to shrug off how much it bothered him. “Levi said he’s got everything under control. For the moment, we need to focus on Jean before anything else happens.”

“Okay, well, what do we know?” Eren asked, leaning back against the headboard and scowling. “Do we think Jean found something? Or was onto something?”

“Probably,” Mikasa said without pause. “It’s likely he figured out who the Caster was, or maybe what they wanted. Either would be dangerous. I actually think we should be taking you out of town.”

“I disagree,” Armin said, then seemed startled that he’d spoken at all when the other two turned to him. “If Eren suddenly disappears, it could cause havoc to break out. More people would go missing, more people would get hurt. We don’t know what lengths the Caster is willing to go to to get what they want. They already tried to kill Levi, kidnapped two people, and got Levi arrested. They don’t seem to have any problems doing anything illegal.”

Eren could tell Mikasa didn’t like it, but Armin had a fair point. They couldn’t erase the problem by removing him from the equation, that would only make things worse. They had to get to the root of it, figure out who was after him, what they wanted. They had to find Jean.

It was like a hit to the gut when he thought about it again. About how Jean was missing. It felt like a nightmare, like he was asleep right now and would wake up to Jean banging on his door after a night shift, being an ass and pissing him off like he usually did. It was hard to breathe when he remembered that this was real, and Jean was missing.

Maybe dead. Jesus Christ, Jean might be _dead_! Eren didn’t know how he would handle that. He didn’t know if he’d be able to.

“We have to do something,” Eren said darkly, looking up at his sister and friend. “We have to find Jean, no matter the cost.”

* * *

“What the fuck are you doing?!”

Eren jerked where he stood, blinking his eyes slowly and trying to figure out where he was. His brain felt like it was swimming in Jell-o, his mouth tasted foul, and he could feel two strong hands clenched around his shoulders. He thought he might be sailing through the air, but he wasn’t sure. Everything looked like it was spinning out of control, so it was hard to tell.

“It was his idea, we’re trying to find Jean!”

“And if his idea got all of you killed, that was okay as long as you found Jean before you died?!”

He recognized that voice. It sounded familiar, safe. It sounded like someone he wanted to keep close, which probably explained why he turned and buried his face in the person’s neck. He inhaled deeply, smelling sweat and something else he couldn’t place. They were so warm. He wanted to go back to sleep.

Arms wrapped around him protectively, holding him in an almost too-tight grip. He could feel the rumble of his voice in his chest before the words actually met his ears.

“I understand you’re worried about Jean. I’m worried about Erwin. But Hanji and I have got this under control. Risking your lives like this isn’t going to help anyone.”

Levi. It was Levi. Eren recognized his voice now. Levi was here. How was he here? Wasn’t he in jail? Hadn’t he _been_  in jail for the past three days? How was he here? Was he dreaming?

He hoped not. Levi was comfortable. He was safe. He wanted to stay like this forever.

“We weren’t going to let anyone hurt him,” the first voice insisted. It took Eren a few seconds to place Mikasa. It was Mikasa. Why was she there again? Wasn’t he sleeping at Levi’s? Actually, he was cold and standing, so he wasn’t exactly sure they were sleeping at Levi’s. But where else would they be?

“I’m talking about _all_  of you!” Levi snapped, voice rising in anger once more. “Jean was taken! This person tried to _kill_  me! Do you not understand?! This isn’t a game! People’s _lives_  are at stake! This was stupid, and irresponsible!”

“And what are _you_  doing?!” Mikasa demanded angrily. “Your friend has been missing for _weeks_  now, and you’re still just _waiting_  for something to happen so you can find him! We’re not waiting that long for Jean!”

“I’m working on it!” Levi bellowed.

“Keep your voices down,” Armin insisted. Eren thought it was Armin, he wasn’t sure. It sounded like him. He was tired. And cold. He wanted to go back to sleep. He tried to burrow himself further into Levi’s neck, exhaling slowly and trying to let his mind wander.

“We’re going back. This isn’t up for debate.”

Eren felt his feet lift off the ground, and were he more awake, he may have been embarrassed at being carried so easily. But he wasn’t more awake, and he was so tired, and Levi was right there and so warm.

He drifted back off into sleep.

When he awoke hours later, he wasn’t sure if he’d dreamed it all or if it had actually happened. He sat up with a groan and heard a clink, looking down to see handcuffs around his right wrist connected to his headboard. He tugged slightly, but they were tight around his wrist and he just let his hand drop, looking around sleepily. He reached up to scratch an itch at the back of his head, the leather cuff around his free wrist obviously the reason his right hand had been handcuffed to the bed instead of his left one.

“Hello?” he asked, voice coming out rough. He cleared his throat and tried again, louder. “Hello?”

His bathroom door opened and he looked over at it. Levi stood in the doorway, towelling his hair dry, and Eren couldn’t help but feel relief flood through him. Levi was here, so that hadn’t been a dream. He was out. He was okay.

“Hey,” he said with a sleepy smile. “You’re back.”

“You’re gonna pretend you don’t know how royally pissed I am?” Levi asked, finishing with his hair and tossing the towel back into the bathroom. He stalked over to the bed, standing just beyond Eren’s reach and glared down at him. It was almost like he was trying to loom but, being so short, he had to loom from a little further away so Eren wouldn’t be tempted to comment on his shortness.

“What?” Eren asked, still trying to wake up a little bit more since it was hard to think clearly when he was still half-asleep. “What do you mean?”

“I know you remember pieces of last night, Jaeger, don’t pretend you don’t!”

Hearing his last name escape Levi’s lips made him wince slightly, because it reminded him that everything _else_  that had happened last night was real too, not just Levi being out of prison. That meant their attempts to find out who was behind all this had failed because he’d stopped them. It had been perfect timing for it, too. Grisha had closed the store for an undetermined amount of time during the night shifts after what had happened to Jean, and had cut back on Eren’s hours to help him cope with his friend’s disappearance. He had so much free time right now that he didn’t need to worry about work or anything else, which let him focus on finding Jean. And he’d been working on it, before Levi had come to mess it all up.

Not that he wasn’t happy to see him.

Sighing, Eren sat up and raked his free hand through his hair, the other still resting against the bed since Levi hadn’t uncuffed him yet.

“You realize Jean and Erwin are probably in the same place, right? I was just trying to find them.”

“By getting yourself killed? By endangering your sister and your other friend? What were you thinking, Eren?! This person tried to _kill_  me! They kidnapped a _pack leader_  and your best friend! They aren’t fucking around!”

“Exactly!” Eren insisted angrily, turning to level Levi with an angry glare. “They’re _not_  fucking around! Erwin’s been missing for _how_  long?! You don’t even know he’s still alive, you’re just _hoping_  he is! Jean’s been missing for four days now, if we count today, and I’m not gonna sit here and do nothing! I’m going to find him!”

“No you’re not.”

“Excuse me?” Eren demanded. “What are you gonna do, leave me handcuffed here?”

Levi didn’t reply, but Eren could tell that was what he was thinking. He was thinking about just leaving him there until this whole thing was over, and Eren hated that. He wasn’t helpless, and he wasn’t going to quit. If Levi started being a problem, Eren was going to stop listening to him. He understood that Levi was trying to keep him safe, but Eren had people to protect, too.

Levi was one of them.

“Levi,” he said quietly, clenching his handcuffed fist, “uncuff me. Now.”

“If you think that constipated look on your face is going to intimidate me, you’re wrong.”

“This isn’t just _your_  decision!” Eren shouted, tugging on the handcuff. It made his still rather injured wrist twinge in protest. “Don’t you understand that?! Jean could be _dying_! Erwin could be dying! Don’t you care about him?!”

“Of course I do!” Levi shouted. “I have been going out of my mind worrying about Erwin! I’ve done everything I can think of to find him, everything I can _dream_  of! But what I _don’t_  need is to worry about _two_  people at the same time, so you’re going to _stop_  putting yourself in danger so that I can focus on finding my friend!”

Eren’s head snapped back slightly, never having seen Levi lose control like that before. He could tell he meant it. He could tell that Levi was angry that Eren seemed to be making everything worse. It wasn’t his intention, he just couldn’t sit still. He didn’t want to sit and wait for Nile to show up and tell his parents to break it to him that Jean was dead.

He couldn’t. He _couldn’t_!

“Just give me time,” Levi insisted quietly. “It’s all I need right now. Just let me have some time, and I promise, I’ll bring Jean back. Him and Erwin both. But I need you to stop putting yourself in harm’s way. I need you to just fucking _stay_. Do you understand?”

Eren’s hands curled into fists again, but he nodded once, slowly.

“Three days,” Eren said quietly. “You have three days to find them your way. After that, we’re trying mine.”

Levi’s jaw clenched but he nodded stiffly. At least they had come to an agreement, even if neither of them was happy about it.

It wasn’t up for debate anymore. They were finding Jean and Erwin, or Eren was going to die trying.

* * *

A loud clang jerked him out of the weird sleep-haze he was in, forcing his brain back to consciousness and therefore making it harder for him to ignore the pain in his stomach and the lack of air to his lungs. It took a conscious effort for him curl his fingers over, making a fist with his right hand. He couldn’t manage it with his left, and that was a concern he was sure he would acknowledge when his brain was working again.

Everything looked hazy, it was hard to focus on anything in particular. It was cold, and the floor was grey concrete beneath his feet. His chest hurt, and it felt like he was suffocating. His arms were numb, and he reminded himself it was because they had been above him, supporting his weight for the better part of the day. The longer he remained in this position, the harder it was to breathe.

His stomach ached with hunger and his throat burned every time he swallowed. He wasn’t sure he was even producing saliva anymore. He didn’t have any liquids left in him, at this point.

Every gasp of air was painful, and he worried each time that it would be his last, but he somehow continued to manage to force oxygen into his lungs. It was difficult with the position he was in, but he struggled through the pain. Struggled through the feelings of suffocation.

He wasn’t going to die here. This wasn’t where he was going to go out.

“Wake up.” There was a loud clang to his left, not close enough to be within reach, but in the same room. The sound made his ears hurt, the echo of it almost too loud in the empty space.

He recognized the voice. It was low, rough, and unfriendly. He knew who it belonged to. He wished he had the energy to be angry.

“Dinner time, wolf-man.”

A clatter, like someone throwing a plate and his stomach ached even more. When had he last had something to eat? A day ago? Two?

“Jesus Christ!” A new voice, and then hurried footsteps across the empty space. He saw a blob materialize in front of him through his hazy vision and then someone was tugging at the chains.

He let out a pathetic wheeze when the action made it harder for him to breathe but in a few seconds the pressure around his wrists left him. Seeing as that was virtually the only thing holding him up, he crashed to the floor the second his wrists were free, the cold cement seeping through his shirt and sweats. He hit his head and hands painfully when he fell, making his vision even worse. He tried to shake his head, but his body wasn’t moving the way he wanted it to.

Someone crouched beside him, a hand falling onto his shoulder and trying to help him sit up. He just slapped it away. Or tried to, but even though he’d failed, the message seemed clear because nobody tried to touch him again. They just let him lie there like he was dying.

He probably was.

“I thought we agreed nobody was gonna get hurt!”

“Who cares?” the first voice asked from across the room. “He’s just a fucking wolf.”

“Jean isn’t!” the second voice snapped, hand on his shoulder again. “He’s human, and I thought we agreed nobody would get hurt unless they _had_  to!”

“Relax.” Another set of footsteps approached and Jean tried to twist around so he could crawl away. He had to get out of there before the fucking psychos killed him. He didn’t even manage to twist. Whatever they’d given him, it was really messing him up. He was sure the lack of water and food the past few days also wasn’t helping, not to mention he hadn’t exactly been able to sleep while chained to the ceiling and asphyxiating.

“See, look at him. He’s fine. Let’s just let him piss, get some food in him and get out of here. I hate this place.”

“Nobody was supposed to get hurt,” the second voice insisted again, quieter this time. “This is getting out of hand. Killing the wolves is one thing, but we’re going after humans now? Jean—”

“Was getting too close. If he gets too close, he warns Eren. If he warns Eren, then Eren doesn’t come willingly.”

“Look around you!” the shout was too close to Jean’s ears for his liking and it made him wince. “Eren’s _not_  here! This is all going to shit! It isn’t going to work! He’s already bound, you saw it yourself, we can’t just _break_  that! We should just give up, let things be and pretend we were never involved!”

“You wanna be the one to say that?” the first voice demanded angrily. “To walk up to the house and say you want out? Good luck, I’ll make sure to write something heartfelt for your funeral.”

The other didn’t speak, and the room fell into silence barring the sound of Jean’s ragged breathing and a groan of pain from across the room.

Even with his brain working at half-mast, Jean could deduce that it was Erwin. He was still alive. For now, at least. He sounded better than Jean felt, so there was that. Still, if the way things were going was any indication, he had the sneaking suspicion he wasn’t going to be leaving this place alive.

Jean really didn’t want to die.

“All we need,” the first voice said quietly, the two of them right above Jean, “is Eren. Once we’ve got Eren, we can fix everything. We just need to get Jaeger here, and once he’s dead, everything we’ve been working towards will become a reality.”

His left hand twitched and he felt bile rising in his throat. They kept talking about not killing Jean, because he was human, but apparently killing Eren was okay.

Because Eren wasn’t human.

Which begged the question: what exactly _was_  he?

Not a priority right then, though. Jean had many hours to look forward to hanging from the ceiling to think on it. For the moment, he just tried to crawl away across the floor. It was hard to tell if he was making any progress or not, especially since he didn’t hear anyone take any steps and he was being hauled up. He must not have gotten far.

“Come on, up you get.” He was plopped down into a chair, feeling like a sack of potatoes. “Let’s get him fed, let him piss, and get out of here. A lot of people are looking for him, and I don’t want to be here if they end up finding him.”

He hoped people found him soon. Really soon.

Jean really, _really_  didn’t want to die. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Keyvvi. No heroic Jeanbo for you -petpet-


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

Eren sat on the bottom step of the stairs leading into the basement, hands clasped together and eyes on the wolf pacing in the cage. He could tell it was upset, watching him intently through yellow eyes, as if wondering why it wasn’t getting any pets or even just Eren’s attention.

There was no way for it to know that he and Levi had been fighting right before the change had hit him.

Levi’s three days were up. Now it was Eren’s turn to try something. He knew it was stupid, and reckless, and dangerous. He knew he might not come back from it, but right now, he didn’t care.

One life for two seemed like a good deal, in his opinion. And he didn’t even know that he was in any danger. He didn’t know what the being after him wanted, what if it was just some weird body snatcher? It would take over Eren’s body, but leave his consciousness there and then Eren wouldn’t _technically_  be dead.

Eren couldn’t help but look around again, feeling uncomfortable to be back in Levi’s house. They hadn’t been back since Levi had almost died, but with the full moon, they needed the cage. Levi hadn’t had time to remember he would need to head back to Trost, so Armin, Mikasa and Eren had swept his place top to bottom for anything that could potentially have wolfsbane in it before letting him back into the house.

After the first failed attempt on his life, they could only deduce that the person responsible figured this wasn’t how they were going to get at Levi.

Looking back at the wolf pacing for a few moments, Eren rubbed absently at the mark that had appeared on his skin before glancing down at it. The tattoo-like ink seemed to be darkening, and no matter how much Eren tried to wash it or scratch at it, the mark remained. Like it was inside his skin.

Every now and then, the urge to ask his mother about it slammed into him like a freight train, but he was too scared to. He was scared about what it meant, why it was there, why Levi had it, too. It wasn’t like it had escaped his notice that his mother had the same one. He’d been asking about it for as long as he could remember, and she never talked about how she’d gotten it other than to mention it was shortly after having met Grisha.

Eren had always been under the assumption that it was a tattoo she’d gotten, but now he wasn’t so sure. What if hers had appeared on her skin suddenly just like his had? What if she was just as confused about its appearance as he was and had just told everyone it was a tattoo?

But it wasn’t a tattoo. It was the same as Eren’s, and he was terrified of telling her he had it, too. He didn’t know what it meant. To date, the only person he’d shown it to was Mikasa. Armin didn’t count, that had been an accident.

And then Levi... Why did he have it? He hadn’t admitted that it wasn’t a tattoo, even after they’d gotten close. So _was_  it a tattoo, truly, or had it appeared on his skin the same way as Eren’s? Which then begged the question of _why_. Why had this appeared on their wrists? His mother’s, Eren’s, Levi’s. Just—why?

The wolf let out a little huff, clearly angry and snapping Eren back to the present. His mind often strayed to the tattoo when it wasn’t on Jean. It was something of a relief to have another crazy thing in his life to focus on.

Slapping the leather band back around his wrist to cover the mark, Eren stood and took a few steps closer to the bars.

The wolf stopped pacing immediately.

“I’m still mad at you,” Eren snapped, knowing it wasn’t the wolf’s fault, but unable to separate it and Levi. “What if I welded the handle to the bars? Then you wouldn’t be able to get out.”

He was fairly certain Levi would just knock the front of the cage down like the wolf had done, but it would hurt. A lot. He didn’t want to cause Levi that kind of pain, but he also didn’t want him to think he had a right to make Eren’s choices for him. He wasn’t an idiot, he knew how dangerous this all was, but he wasn’t willing to lose Jean.

He had jumped between a wolf and its dinner to save his friend, that should’ve been enough of a hint for anyone that he would lay down his life for Jean.

The wolf stiffened and began to growl, pacing once more and eying Eren intently. The brunet assumed Mikasa must’ve moved upstairs again—the wolf didn’t seem to like having an unseen person in its general vicinity—but when he heard the door slam loudly above him, he realized it was someone else’s arrival. The only person who would be arriving would be Armin, so he didn’t think much of it until his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Pulling it out, he turned to shush the wolf, annoyed, and then read his message.

**[Mikasa]**  
Come upstairs.  
**[Mikasa]**  
Now.

“I’ll be back,” he said to the wolf. “Don’t be a dick. I’m right upstairs.”

It growled angrily when he walked away from it, but it soon began to whine like a baby when he climbed the stairs and exited the basement, shutting the door behind himself. He felt almost bad that he was being mean to the wolf, it didn’t know any better. To it, Eren was just angry, and it didn’t know why because it hadn’t seen him since the last full moon. He wondered if the wolf shared any memories with Levi.

Probably not, or it wouldn’t go on a killing spree whenever it was in charge.

Moving into the living room where Mikasa was, his assumptions were correct when he found Armin sitting on the couch, all wide-eyed and looking like he’d been tugging at his hair for hours. He was sitting beside her, Erwin’s laptop open on his lap and when he caught Eren out of the corner of his eye, he turned to look at him with fear but also awe.

“You’re never gonna believe this,” the genius said, and he turned the laptop around.

Eren stiffened and then immediately moved forward, yanking the laptop out of Armin’s grasp and sitting on the coffee table across from the other two, setting it down on his lap.

He ripped the leather cuff off his wrist and held it up beside the screen, eyes moving back and forth between the mark on his skin and the one on the computer.

They were the same. He quickly scrolled up and down to see what else was there, but he couldn’t understand anything that was written. It looked like a scanned copy of a very old, very fragile book. All the pages were yellowed and some of the print was so faint that he doubted anyone would be able to decipher it, even if they knew whatever language it was in.

“What is this?” he demanded.

“I don’t know,” Armin insisted. “It was in one of the emails that Erwin got that the program managed to retrieve. It’s still not finished, so there might be more, but the person who sent it to Erwin seemed to know how to read it. Talked about some kind of weird bond and a pact made between two families back in the twelfth century. I didn’t really think anything of it when I first read the email, but when I scrolled through the pages and saw _that_ ,” he motioned the computer on Eren’s lap, “I knew it was about you.”

“I need to talk to this person,” Eren said, feeling sick. A bond? A pact? What the fuck did that even _mean_?! “I need to get in touch with them, who is it?”

“I already emailed them,” Armin said. He was using his soothing voice, as if realizing Eren was about to lose it and trying to stop that from happening. “I called the number he’d left Erwin, but it went to voicemail, so I tried emailing him. I wanted to talk to Levi about it, or maybe Hanji. I doubt this professor is going to be forthcoming if he thinks I stole Erwin’s computer, so I want to try and make sure I can convince him that I’m only trying to help.”

“Erwin was looking into my background,” Eren said quietly, scrolling through the pages and glaring at the words, as if doing so hard enough would allow him to read them. “Whatever this is, this pact being referenced is why Levi isn’t tempted to hurt me when he turns. Something that happened back then is affecting something now.”

“Most likely,” Armin agreed. “The program is almost done running, and the last email I managed to retrieve had to do with a rivalry. It didn’t go into detail between who because part of the conversation is still corrupted, but I’m hoping once everything has been restored we’ll have a better understanding of what’s going on.”

A phone rang loudly in the silence that followed and they all tensed. Armin struggled to pull it from his pocket, checking the display and wincing.

“It’s my grandfather.”

“Probably noticed you were gone,” Mikasa commented.

“I left a note,” he muttered, then answered the call.

It wasn’t that Armin wasn’t allowed out of the house at night. He was an adult, he was free to do as he pleased, but his grandfather was worried. Understandably so, given Jean’s disappearance.

Thinking of Jean again made Eren’s chest clench and he scowled at the screen, wishing he could just _read it_! Wishing he didn’t have to wait for Armin to finish what Jean had started. Wishing this professor, whoever he was, would respond sooner rather than later. He wanted to know what was happening, why it seemed like he was the catalyst in a war he didn’t even know he was in until Levi had found him wandering down the street in the middle of the night.

“I need to go,” Armin said once he’d hung up, snapping Eren out of his thoughts. “He’s pretty mad.”

“Understandable, considering.” Mikasa didn’t elaborate, but Jean’s absence suddenly seemed to weigh more heavily on them. It had never just been the three of them before. Jean and Eren were always together. Where one went, the other followed. Having Mikasa and Armin together, like usual, but Jean missing from Eren’s side felt like a piece of Eren’s soul had been ripped away. He didn’t know what he would do if Jean died, so the asshole better have held himself together.

“Do you want one of us to go with you?” Mikasa asked, but she glanced at Eren when she did.

“No, it’s okay.” Armin stood and moved a step closer to Eren. Reluctantly, he shut the screen and handed it back to the blond, who stowed it away in a laptop case. “I know you want to be here with Eren, and we all know he wants to stay with Levi. I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah.” Mikasa rubbed her hands against her legs, and it occurred to Eren that she was nervous.

He supposed he could understand. Jean was his friend, and while Armin was also his friend, he and Mikasa had always been closer. She obviously saw how Jean’s disappearance was affecting Eren, she likely didn’t want the same thing.

“See you tomorrow. With any luck, the professor will have responded.”

“Night Armin.”

They both watched him leave, his car stuttering for a moment before starting and then the crunch of gravel as he drove away.

There was a very loud, very suggestive bang from downstairs that had both Eren and Mikasa jump. His sister’s eyes widened and Eren raced for the basement door, throwing it open and hurrying down the stairs. He ran to the cage, the wolf whining and rubbing its muzzle against its side.

“What are you doing, you giant moron? I’m fine, I’m right here, stop that!”

The wolf rushed the cage so fast that Eren thought it was going to slam into it again but it stopped just short of hitting it, bumping its nose against one of Eren’s thighs through the bars.

Sighing, Eren reached through and pet it, practically seeing the tenseness leave it when his fingers brushed through its fur. It was like the wolf had needed reassurance that it wasn’t hated, and that Eren was safe.

“You’re really annoying,” he muttered affectionately, stroking it gently and tugging lightly on one ear. “You’re lucky you’re so fucking cute or I’d still be pissed at you.”

He pet it for a few seconds longer, then pulled away. It looked unhappy he’d done so, but he just moved back to the stairs and shut the door after telling Mikasa he was going to sleep. Then, he headed back down and kicked the air mattress over to the cage, removing his shoes and getting under the blanket before sticking one arm into the cage.

The wolf immediately lay down with its upper body over Eren’s arm. That was definitely going to go numb before morning.

* * *

“Eren. Eren! Eren, wake up.”

Groaning, Eren twisted slowly, the action cut off when one arm refused to move accordingly. Blinking open his eyes, he found himself staring at the cage, where a human Levi was still fast asleep, lying on his arm.

Turning his head, he found Mikasa standing over him. She looked pale and terrified and that woke him up instantly. He pulled his arm out from under Levi, who just grunted and rolled over, but continued to sleep. The sun barely looked like it had risen fully yet so he’d likely just changed back. Eren liked it when Levi changed back into a human because he somehow always seemed to sleep through it. He liked that Levi didn’t have to experience any pain.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, voice thick with sleep. He raked one hand through his hair, but Mikasa just motioned for him to come upstairs and he grumbled while pulling on his shoes before following her.

When they got to the top of the stairs and through the basement door, Mikasa turned to him and crossed her arms defensively, looking scared. Eren had never seen her look scared before.

“Eren, Armin’s grandfather just called me. He said he was waiting for Armin to come home last night and fell asleep, but when he woke up just now, Armin isn’t there.”

A rock seemed to settle in the pit of Eren’s stomach at the words.

“What?”

“That’s not all.” She turned and headed for the front door. Eren rushed after her, the two of them exiting the house, and Eren felt ready to throw up at the sight that greeted him.

It was Armin’s car.

Armin’s car was sitting in the middle of the lawn, as if he had parked it there and then never left.

“We heard his car leave!” Eren insisted, turning back to her.

“What if we didn’t?” she asked quietly, hunching her shoulders slightly. “What if we heard his car _start_ , but the gravel was another car showing up.”

“That’s impossible, we can’t not have heard _anything_!”

“The wolf acted up,” she argued. “The wolf acted up because danger was close, and we both panicked about it. Armin never left last night, whatever took Jean has him, too.”

“No,” Eren insisted, feeling anger rising in his chest. He stomped down the porch steps and raced to the car, wrenching open the door and beginning to look around in it. He checked the glove box, under the seats, popped the trunk, everything. “Shit. Shit! It’s gone! It’s fucking _gone_!”

“What is?” Mikasa demanded.

“The laptop! Erwin’s laptop! It’s fucking gone!” He felt ready to explode. “That was our only hint! Our _only_  clue to finding Jean! To saving his life! And it’s fucking _gone_! And Armin’s gone with it! How the fuck are we gonna save anyone now?!”

“What the fuck are you screaming about so early in the morning?” a voice snapped from the door. Eren and Mikasa whipped around and found Levi standing there. Eren was glad he’d at least had the forethought to pull sweats on.

“Armin is missing.”

“What?” The anger melted off his face instantly and he rushed down the steps. “Are you sure?”

“He was here last night with Erwin’s laptop, and now he’s gone.” Eren turned back to the car, hands in his hair and tugging. “Shit. Fuck!” He kicked at one of the wheels angrily, feeling his chest constrict.

This couldn’t be happening right now. Everyone who was getting closer to finding anything out about Eren and what was after him was disappearing. This was fucking insane! Eren didn’t want to be responsible for all these people getting hurt!

“We have a bigger problem,” Levi suddenly said, moving up beside Eren and brushing one hand automatically across his lower back.

“What could possibly be bigger than Armin missing?” Mikasa snapped before Eren could.

“I hear sirens. And they’re coming in this direction.”

That effectively shut both of them up, and Eren strained to hear. After a few moments, he could hear them, too. Sirens. More than one set. They really _were_  coming this way.

“Armin said he left a note,” Mikasa suddenly said. “He must’ve told his grandfather he was coming to your place. He probably didn’t consider how that would sound. Him coming here, to see the person supposedly responsible for Jean’s disappearance.”

“If they think I’m responsible for Armin, they’re going to arrest me again.” Levi didn’t seem concerned with this, just frustrated. “I don’t have time for this.”

“It’s okay, you’ll get out,” Eren insisted. “We were with you all night, we can vouch for you.”

He nodded stiffly, but it wasn’t until the first cop car rounded the corner that a horrible, terrible realization struck Eren. It seemed to strike Levi at the exact same moment because he stiffened and Eren was sure he was considering making a break for it.

Today was still day two of the full moon.

If Levi didn’t get out of jail before nightfall, a lot of people were going to die.

* * *

Hanji paced back and forth in front of the couch, biting their thumbnail and checking the time on the wall every few minutes. It was quarter past six, which left them just under two hours to get Levi out of prison before the sun set.

Hanji hated this stupid little town. It had been nothing but trouble for Levi since he’d arrived, and they wished he’d just kidnapped Eren and moved back to Trost with him. Maybe everything that had happened could’ve been avoided if they’d gone down that road instead of Levi moving here.

Their eyes shifted to look at Eren, who was sitting on the couch with his hands clenched and pressed against his forehead, face downcast. It was weird, being with Eren right then. All he could smell on him was Levi. It was like he was trying to ensure any wolf who came across him knew that Eren already belonged to someone. Even Isabelle hadn’t had this potent of a smell, and Hanji knew they had had sex multiple times leading up to their engagement.

With Eren, it was different. It was like he rubbed himself all over him, made him wear his clothes, draped himself across him. The smell was so strong, it was almost like Levi was sitting in the room with him and not Eren.

“What do we do if he doesn’t get out?” Eren asked quietly. It was the first thing he’d said in hours.

“I don’t know,” Hanji admitted.

This was outside their area of expertise. Erwin was the one who made plans, not Hanji. They’d brought Mike Zakarius, figuring having a real lawyer help Levi would be beneficial, but the closer it got to sunset, the more nervous Hanji became. Mike would have to leave eventually, he’d have to come back to Levi’s so they could get into the cage before the sun set.

But then what about Levi? What would happen if Mike couldn’t get him out? If he turned in prison, there would be people. Humans.

There would be a reason for the wolf to lose control.

They had to get him out, no matter what. Hanji just didn’t know how to _do_  that!

Eren had called Hanji because he and Mikasa had spent close to two hours at the station trying to convince everyone there that they had been with Levi all night. They couldn’t prove it, and with Armin missing from the place they claimed to have been with Levi, it made it all very suspicious. After arguing that for the length of time they had, Eren had felt a call was necessary.

Hanji wished he’d called two hours sooner.

They continued to pace, throat tightening the closer it got to sunset. Hanji was already worried sick about Erwin, and now they had to think about Levi, too. Not to mention Erwin’s territory was completely undefended at the moment. Hanji had called Zackly from the car to ask for his help, and while he’d promised to do what he could, Hanji didn’t trust that he would protect the area if it meant a danger to his own.

They hated that. They hated not having more allies. This was a nightmare.

And it was all Eren’s fault.

Hanji actually felt like they hated him a little bit right in this moment. They knew it wasn’t truly his fault, that he had never wanted any of this to happen, but Erwin was missing and Levi was in prison on a full moon night, and it was because of Eren.

At half past seven, Hanji was really beginning to panic when they heard a car approaching. They recognized the sound of Mike’s Audi and felt a huge weight lift from their shoulders at the sound of two heartbeats.

He had Levi. Jesus fucking _Christ_ , Mike had Levi!

Racing for the door, they wrenched it open and hurried down the porch steps. There was movement behind them and Eren appeared beside them, looking anxious but hopeful.

It took another thirty seconds before the SUV rounded the last corner and made its way up to the house before stopping. When the car stopped and both doors opened, Eren let out a huge sigh of relief before rushing forward and hugging Levi tightly.

Hanji moved closer and slapped Mike hard in the arm, grinning broadly. “Well done, Mike! I don’t know who you had to blow for this, but thank you for the sacrifice.”

Mike didn’t seem impressed with this comment, but was easily distracted from it when Eren moved closer. Without a word, Mike leaned forward and inhaled deeply, making Eren take a step back, giving him a confused look.

Without a word, Mike just gave Levi a look. The other man shrugged.

Apparently Hanji wasn’t the only one who thought Eren smelled an awful lot like Levi.

“We need to get inside,” Hanji said, checking their watch. “Sunset’s in just over half an hour, we should get ready for it.”

“Levi can’t go with you,” Eren insisted. “I have to stay with him, and that doesn’t work with other wolves.”

“You can survive without him for one night,” Hanji insisted.

“No, he’s right.” Levi frowned. “If Eren isn’t close, the wolf will get anxious and might try and break out. We’re not having a repeat of what happened with Erwin when we tried this the last time. You two go to the cage, I’ll figure something out with Eren.”

“I already have a place,” Eren said. “But we should go. Now.”

Hanji wanted to argue, but the look on Levi’s face made it clear it wasn’t open for debate. Hanji ignored that and argued anyway. Very loudly and boisterously. Mike ended up just grabbing the back of their jacket and yanking them into the house.

This was the last time Hanji stuck their neck out for Levi if this was the thanks they got.

* * *

“Why are we here?” Levi asked when Eren stopped the truck and turned off the engine. “This is your brilliant idea?”

“Have you not noticed the store’s been closed for the past few nights?” Eren asked, throwing open the door and climbing out of the truck. Levi followed suit, checking the time anxiously. The sun was already low on the horizon, and it was going to set soon. He didn’t have time to dawdle, so he wanted to get where he needed to be _now_.

“I’ve been a little busy.”

“You haven’t noticed all my free time?” Eren asked, moving to the front door while flipping through his keys and then unlocking it when he found the correct one. “Dad decided it was best to have the store closed at night, so we’ve been closing at six.” He tapped a sign on the door and held it open for Levi to follow him inside.

He did, allowing Eren to shut the front door and lock it behind him, then leading the way to the back. It had occurred to Levi long before their entrance that the best place for them to be during his change today would be the storage room. It had already sustained a Werewolf trying to break out of it, and if the store was closed, it meant they didn’t run the risk of any humans happening upon them.

He honestly hadn’t noticed the store’s closure during the nights, he’d just assumed Eren hadn’t been working the night shifts. As for why he was around during the day, well, he’d assumed his father could tell the whole Jean missing thing was hitting him fairly hard. Which it was.

Levi hadn’t gotten any shifts for obvious reasons. Grisha probably didn’t want him around, it was bad for business. Probably also didn’t want him near his son, but that was a battle he wasn’t going to win.

Eren pulled open the large door for the storage room and motioned Levi in. He didn’t like the idea of them being trapped in there together, but it wasn’t like it hadn’t happened before. He just generally preferred having a set of bars separating him and Eren, but even he knew that the wolf would never hurt him.

He just didn’t like it. At all.

Sighing and conceding defeat, Levi trudged into the room, fingers brushing against the other’s arm, and turned to wait for Eren when the door slammed in his face. He stared at it for a few seconds, wondering if maybe Eren’s idea was more Levi in the storage room and him on the other side, but that didn’t make sense. He couldn’t protect Eren from in here, not like he could when he was in the cage and could break out of it if he really needed to.

“Eren?”

“I’m sorry.”

The second he heard the words, he knew. Fear rose quickly and he felt all the blood drain from his face.

Pressing both hands against the door, he grit his teeth. “Eren, what are you doing?”

“If you’re in the cage, you’ll break out. I can’t have Mike and Hanji running free in Shiganshina. This is the only place I could think to put you without you managing to get out.”

“Eren, think about what you’re doing.”

“Armin is gone!” Eren shouted. Levi heard his voice crack on the last word, and he clenched his jaw, scowling angrily at the door that separated them. “Jean is gone. _Erwin_  is gone. Everyone is starting to disappear, you almost _died_ , you’ve been arrested _twice_. I can’t anymore, Levi. I _can’t_. Mikasa agrees with me, and we’re gonna do this, regardless of whether you like it or not. I’m going to find my friends, and in the morning, when we know who to go after, we can figure everything out.”

“Eren think this through!” Levi shouted, banging one fist against the door. “You don’t know what’ll happen if you go there! You don’t know that you’ll make it back home if you do this! Think of Mikasa!”

“I _am_  thinking of her! And you! And my family! People are going to keep disappearing, Levi! This thing wants me, and I’m going to find out who or _what_  it is, and I’m going to fucking decimate it! I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Eren, don’t do this! Eren! Eren, don’t be an idiot, don’t do this!”

He could hear the other’s footsteps recede towards the front of the store. He shouted after him, banging on the door, slamming his shoulder against it, almost resorting to begging. But Eren ignored him and left the store, the lock sounding behind him. Then Levi heard him climb into his car, slam the door, and drive away.

Levi didn’t stop trying to escape the room the entire time leading up to the change. And if Eren was doing what he said he was going to do, he doubted the wolf would stop trying to escape, either.

He was going to fucking _murder_  him when he got out of this room!

* * *

Mikasa wiped her left hand along her pants, trying to get some of the sweat off it before returning it to the paintball gun she was holding. It was Eren’s, and they had spent a long time trying to dig it out of his closet and ensure it still worked. While not a real weapon, it could still break someone’s nose if Mikasa hit them in the face, and considering her impeccable aim, if anyone came at them, she was going to hit them in the face.

She let her gaze sweep the area slowly, tightening her grip around the paintball gun she held while following along behind Eren. Every now and then she had to tug him to the side or shift him a little so that he wasn’t walking in the middle of the road. She also wanted to try and keep him in the shadows as much as possible. She didn’t feel like anyone was watching them, but they had been walking for close to an hour, so they had to be near wherever Eren was meant to be going.

Worry gnawed at her insides, and every time she heard a branch snap, or a sound somewhere closeby, she worried it was Levi. She remembered how scared Jean had been that day when they’d all found out about Levi. She kept worrying the protective instinct the wolf seemed to have would allow him to break out of the storage room and find them. She didn’t really like her chances against a Werewolf with nothing more than a paintball gun.

And of course, there was also wherever they were headed to consider, too. If it was some kind of Witch, Mikasa didn’t think she’d have much luck with paint. All in all, this entire thing was a terrible idea, and she acknowledged that. She knew that this was a danger to Eren, and she didn’t want anything to happen to him, but at the same time...

At the same time, Jean and Armin were missing. Jean was tough, he was a survivor. Mikasa trusted that he could keep himself alive for a number of days. It would be hard, and he was likely suffering and in pain, but he was still alive.

Armin wasn’t like that. He wasn’t street-tough, he wasn’t resilient, and he wasn’t going to be able to bully himself into staying alive. All Mikasa could hope for was that Jean bullied him instead, forced him to keep himself in one piece. Just until they found them.

Just until Eren could figure out who was behind this so they could go save them.

It didn’t make her hate it any less though. Using her brother like this, putting his life in danger. It had been a difficult choice, one she still wasn’t happy about, but it was hard to argue with Eren when he set his mind to something. He’d even figured out the best way to ensure Levi wouldn’t break out of the cage and follow them.

Which was another point of anxiety for her, because Levi was at the store, locked in the storage room. She kept having visions of their parents waking up and finding their way to the store, for whatever reason. Of opening the storage room door to see what the banging on the other side of it was and being hurt, or worse.

It wouldn’t happen, though. It _couldn’t_  happen. She and Eren had made sure of it.

Eren had stuck a note on the door saying not to open it until sunrise, just in case their parents magically got into the store, but she doubted they would considering she and Eren had stolen every set of keys they could find in the house. The only people with keys to the store now aside from them were Frieda and Reiner.

Reiner definitely wouldn’t set foot in there without supervision, considering Grisha’s mistrust of him alone in the store, and Frieda hated the night shift and was fairly worried about all the disappearances.

The likelihood of anyone entering the store and letting Levi out of the storage room was in the single digits percentage-wise. Levi would stay there until the sun rose, and everything would be fine.

Mikasa had gone to his house shortly after Eren had left and, once confirming Hanji and the big blonde dude were in the cage, she’d entered the house to drop the note and store key on the coffee table in the living room. When they woke up the next morning, provided they beat Frieda in before her morning shift, they would see the note, take the key, and let Levi out.

He’d be pissed, but Mikasa wasn’t going to let anything happen to Eren, so once they got where they needed to be, they would return home and come up with a plan. Right now, they needed suspicion to be taken off Levi, and they couldn’t do that if they didn’t know who the real bad guy was.

Still, the thought of how angry Levi was going to be come morning made her stomach twist anxiously.

It didn’t help that she was also still following behind Eren down a dark, deserted-feeling street. She knew it wasn’t deserted, it held perfectly manicured lawns and many cars parked in driveways. But this late at night, it felt deserted.

She pulled out her phone to check where they were. They’d left town a while ago, and she was pretty sure they were now in Stohess. It was harder to tell at night, which was why Google Maps was her friend.

Keeping her head up so she could look at her phone and still keep Eren in sight, she stuck it back in her pocket and grabbed at his jacket sleeve to steer him into the shadows once more when he began moving towards the middle of the road again. He seemed to like walking down the middle of the road.

He’d gone to bed wearing his clothes and shoes specifically so that when he wandered out of the house, he wouldn’t be cold or injure himself. Mikasa was surprised he’d fallen asleep at all, it looked very uncomfortable. But, sure enough, almost three hours later, she heard his door open and he wandered down the stairs. She’d set her book aside on one of the living room side tables, had grabbed her coat, keys, and the paintball gun, and had silently followed.

Wiping sweat off her left hand onto her pants again, Mikasa looked around, feeling like the neighbourhood was familiar but not able to place it. She just moved closer to Eren, making sure to keep him at arm’s length in case anything happened. Jumping and whipping around, gun rising instantly, Mikasa let out a sigh and lowered it when she saw a raccoon rustling through an overturned garbage can.

Shaking her head, she twisted back to Eren quickly and felt her stomach lurch when she didn’t immediately find him. Rushing forward, she whipped around in a circle before seeing him climbing the steps of someone’s front porch across the street. He was about to ring the bell when Mikasa caught up to him, grabbing his hand to stop him from doing so and pushing him forcefully back down the stairs and into a bush. She heard him land hard, branches snapping, but she ignored it and crouched, hoping whoever was after him hadn’t noticed his presence.

She glanced at him when he shifted, as if trying to get up, and she forced him back down with her hand in the middle of his face.

Looking back at the house, she frowned slightly while staring at the dark front porch. It didn’t look familiar, but then again, she very rarely came out to Stohess. She had no reason to, she didn’t really know anyone from there. The few people from high school who’d lived in this area had long since moved away, or she hadn’t known them well enough to visit them.

In fact, she was beginning to worry that this was another dead end for her if the person in the house happened not to be listed in the phone book when her eyes caught sight of one of the two cars sitting in the driveway.

The larger one was a huge Dodge Ram Truck, dark grey with chrome plates. She didn’t recognize that vehicle, but the one behind it? _That_ one she knew.

It was a glossy red Mazda 3 with a huge dent on one side and a few scratches along the back bumper, as if its owner enjoyed driving fast and didn’t give a shit about the other people on the road.

Anger boiled in Mikasa’s chest at the sight of it and she turned her dark gaze on the house, feeling murderous. All this time. All this _fucking_ time!

And the worst of it all was that he had been right, and no one had believed him. He was gone, and he had been right.

Fuck it all, Jean had been _right_!

* * *

Levi was breathing so hard he was kind of amazed he hadn’t blacked out yet. His hands curled into fists on the door and he banged hard against it, even though he knew it wouldn’t do him any fucking good. There were dents and scratches all along the inside of it, and he knew there wouldn’t be any way to explain that away to Grisha and Carla when they showed up, but he really didn’t care right now.

His anxiety was through the roof, and he felt like the wolf was still there, prowling back and forth in the forefront of his mind, panicking loudly enough that Levi could hear it.

Shit, he didn’t even know if he’d slept. He’d remembered trying to get out, banging on the door, tugging and pushing with all his strength. The change had hit and he’d been forced to strip and wait it out. Then, it felt as though he had blinked and he was staring at the door again, curled up and sweating on the ground with his clothes in a pile beside him.

He’d already been banging on the door before fully dressing, unable to determine what time it was since there was no fucking window in this hellhole and he couldn’t seem to find his phone. He wondered if maybe he’d left it at the station, considering he and Mike had been in a little bit of a hurry to get out of there when he’d been released.

He had no idea what time it was, no idea how much longer he’d have to wait before someone showed up. Before he would know if Eren was okay. His internal alarms were blaring like crazy, and it was making him positive something had gone wrong. Jesus Christ, if something had happened to Eren, he didn’t know what he would do. First Erwin, now Eren? No. Just— _no_! He had lost too many fucking people in his life, he was _not_  losing his closest friend and someone he loved.

Letting out a loud shout of rage, he banged on the door once more before pressing his forehead against the metal surface, fists still pressed against it. He let his eyes stray to the mark he’d had on his wrist since arriving in this stupid little town, trying to focus on something other than how scared he was that something had happened to Eren.

He let his eyes trace the shape of it, shifting down, across, and then up to form the three lines of the triangle. Then he followed the straight lines within it before starting all over again, just going over the lines continuously until he heard a car approach. Jerking himself into a straighter position, he began yelling and banging on the door again. He heard a door slam, and cursing before two sets of shoes crunched against asphalt, rushing for the front of the store.

“Hanji!” he shouted, banging harder. “Hanji, get me the fuck out of here!”

_“Working on it! There are a lot of keys on this thing!”_  he heard them say from the front, along with the sound of keys jangling. A lock clicked and then the door opened, their shoes slapping against the linoleum of the store and towards the back where Levi was still banging on the door. Three seconds later, it clicked open and Levi shoved it fully away from the frame, barrelling out of the storage room and racing for the door. He didn’t even bother to thank Hanji and Mike, he just slammed through the front door hard enough for it to shatter again and turned to race down the street.

The cold air of morning burned his lungs and he could feel goosebumps rising all along his body, but not because of the chill in the air. It felt like he couldn’t breathe, like a hole had been ripped right through his chest, and the mounting anxiety wasn’t helping any.

He was halfway to Eren’s house when Hanji’s car skid to a halt beside him and he threw himself into the back seat. They didn’t need to be told to step on it, they just floored it and shot down the street, turning the corners at breakneck speed. When they finally reached Eren’s street, they slammed on the brakes in front of his house but ended up skidding a good five feet past it with a loud squeal, leaving skid marks behind the vehicle.

Ignoring that, Levi kicked open the door so hard he was fairly sure he broke it, but he didn’t care. He just torpedoed himself out of the car, raced up the drive and had just taken the porch steps two at a time when the door opened.

“He’s upstairs,” was all Mikasa said, having the good sense to move aside right before Levi reached the front door. He raced past her and climbed the stairs two at a time, thankful for his Werewolf abilities since even stampeding upstairs like this was still fairly quiet and unlikely to wake their parents. Couldn’t say the same about the car, though.

When he reached Eren’s door, he threw it open violently, the wood slamming against the opposite wall and splintering a little, slivers of wood hitting the ground. The action made Eren jump and turn, his hands at the fly of the jeans he was very obviously in the process of putting on. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and his hair was damp, as if he had just exited the shower.

Levi allowed himself one second to feel relief at the sight of him before anger cascaded through him like a tidal wave. He shut the door more quietly than he’d opened it, knowing it was a moot point since Eren’s parents had definitely woken up when he’d slammed it open, and then stalked forward.

Eren had the decency to look terrified, backing away quickly until his back hit the far wall. Levi got right in his face, gripping both arms tightly enough to bruise. He likely would, given the wince he received from Eren, but he was so pissed off he couldn’t loosen his grip.

“Do you have _any_  idea what you did to me?” Levi hissed, voice low and dangerous. “ _Any_  idea at all, Eren? Do you know how I felt being locked in that storage room? Knowing you were out here, alone, with whatever was after you? Do you know how hard the wolf tried to get out, because it knew you were in danger? Do you have _any_  idea what you fucking did to me?!” He couldn’t help the shout that escaped him on the last sentence.

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s not good enough!”

“We know who it is.”

Still not good enough, but Levi had the decency not to say so. He just cursed and pulled Eren into a hug, hand on the back of his neck and face buried in his hair. He had to drag him down a little bit since he was shorter than him, but he didn’t care. It didn’t seem like Eren was going to make fun of his height, and he was so relieved—but still so, so angry—that he was okay that he just tried not to focus on anything but the steady beat of Eren’s heart beneath his fingers, inhaling deep and greedy pulls of his scent.

“You’re a fucking asshole, and I’m going to handcuff you to the bed, and not in a sexy way,” Levi hissed, finally releasing him and taking a step back, letting his hands drag against the sides of his neck and down his throat before letting them fall to his sides. He glanced over his shoulder, surprised Eren’s parents hadn’t burst into the room, but he figured they must be out. He didn’t know what time it was, but it had to be late enough that they were awake and elsewhere.

Turning back to Eren to either ask him what he’d discovered or yell at him some more, he honestly didn’t know which, he caught sight of Eren slapping the leather band he’d taken to wearing lately around his wrist but not before a dark smudge made itself known.

Grabbing at his other hand before he could cover the mark, he pulled it away and stared down at Eren’s wrist, the brunet shifting his hand behind his back. When Levi looked up at his face, Eren’s gaze was averted.

“What is that?”

“Nothing,” he muttered. “Just a bruise.”

Levi tugged at his other arm, knowing he was probably hurting him, but Eren was resisting so he just tugged harder until he finally pulled it out from behind the other’s back. Grabbing his wrist, he yanked it closer with one hand, and then shifted his own palm up so they were side by side.

The marks were the same. He distinctly remembered Eren not having this mark when they’d first met. He remembered not seeing it a few weeks ago. Fuck, he remembered screwing Eren’s brains out, gripping his hands and kissing at his knuckles, and that hadn’t been there.

Eren wrenched his hand away and shoved past Levi, but the Werewolf had to take a second before he could turn to follow him.

“Eren—”

“I don’t know, okay!” he shouted, rounding on Levi. “I don’t know! I don’t know why my mom has it, I don’t know why you have it, I don’t know why I have it! I don’t know what it means! The only ones who know what it means are Armin and Erwin, and they’re fucking _gone_  right now!”

Mikasa appeared instantly, looking back and forth between them, but she didn’t seem to be waiting for an explanation. She obviously already knew Eren had that mark. It annoyed him, because Eren hadn’t told him about it, and he knew it was stupid to feel possessive about it but he did.

“We should talk about last night,” she said, effectively saving Eren from Levi demanding they discuss this further. “Hanji and the other gentleman are downstairs. We need to come up with a plan.”

“Who was it?” Levi asked, realizing he hadn’t before, his mind too focussed on the mark on Eren’s wrist. “Who has Erwin?”

Mikasa smiled bitterly and the pained look on Eren’s face made it clear he wasn’t happy with discovering who was after him.

“I always knew there was a reason I hated that crazy bitch.”

She didn’t even have to say any more for Levi to know exactly who she was talking about.

Jean had been right.

The Caster was Annie.

* * *

The longer he stood there arguing, the angrier he was becoming. He knew he wasn’t exactly the most unbiased person in the world right now, but consider who was missing, he’d have thought he’d hold at least a percent of credibility.

“Look,” Eren said, struggling to keep his calm, “I don’t get why this is so hard for you to understand right now. Jean and Armin are _missing_ , do you really think I would be lying or making this shit up right now?”

Nile Dok let out a rather impressive sigh of exasperation. It almost made Eren’s bangs ruffle with the force of it.

“Eren. I already told you. I know Jean and Armin are your friends, but Levi Ackerman is your boyfriend. You’re just grasping at straws to get him off the suspect list. Don’t make me regret letting him out, he still isn’t allowed to leave town, and if you help him, you’re an accomplice.”

“I understand,” Eren grit out, “why you would think that, but you also know my relationship with Annie. Why would I accuse my own friend if I wasn’t sure?”

“You’d accuse your own mother if it meant giving your boyfriend a free pass.”

Eren was going to bite his face off. He was so frustrated and angry, he wanted to just fucking climb over the desk and murder Nile. Choke the life out of him, strangle him aggressively, shake his lifeless corpse. It must’ve shown on his face because Mikasa’s hand fell onto his arm and she shifted in her chair, as if trying to get comfortable.

“Nile, I can appreciate why you think Eren is looking to place the blame elsewhere, but you can’t honestly think that Eren would choose Levi over Annie if he didn’t have a good reason for it. He’s known Annie since he was a kid, he’s only known Levi a couple of months.”

The police officer leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest and giving Mikasa a brief once-over, as if sizing her up to determine how concerned he should be about her. It was a weird thing to see him do, but Mikasa had been known to get her way before.

Like that time Nile had caught Eren drinking underage. Eren still wasn’t sure how Mikasa had convinced him not to tell their parents. Clearly she had magical powers, and now Nile was trying to decide how much of a threat she was.

Considering he was dating a Werewolf and one of his oldest friends was a Caster, Eren figured it wouldn’t be a stretch for Mikasa to have some kind of magical power.

“Give me something.”

“What?” Eren asked, confused. At least that had helped him calm down somewhat.

“Give me something,” Nile repeated, shrugging. “Anything. Tell me why it’s Annie, what kind of proof you have, why you think it’s her. Give me _something_  to work with, and I’ll go talk to her.”

Eren and Mikasa shared an uneasy look. This was kind of where they hit their snag. Insisting Levi was innocent for Armin’s abduction was easy, because it was the truth. They’d been with Levi all night. It was different with Annie.

It wasn’t exactly like they could tell Nile they knew it was her because she was using her magical powers to lure Eren out of the house to do evil, unspeakable things to him. Not that they even knew they would be evil and unspeakable, but the general luring him out of the house in the middle of the night thing was a bit of a concern.

“I can’t go with nothing,” Nile said with a sigh. “I told Jean the same thing.”

“Jean came to talk about her?” Eren asked, straightening instantly.

“About Levi.”

And Eren deflated. “What?”

“He thought you were being abused. Said you kept coming home injured, but you know how Jean gets.” He shrugged. “Kid’s got an imagination.”

“I _was_  coming home injured.”

The way Nile sat up straighter and uncrossed his arms made Eren think he should’ve kept his mouth shut. Especially since he’d now grabbed a file off the back cabinet and was flipping it open and grabbing a pen while asking him to elaborate.

Eren very wisely decided to keep his mouth shut. The words before had kind of just come out because he was frustrated. Jean had come to Nile asking for help, and Nile had ignored him. While Levi hadn’t been abusing him or anything, it wasn’t like Eren hadn’t returned home multiple times with various injuries. It was almost insulting to realize how hard Jean had tried to protect him, only for Nile to basically say Jean needed to get out more.

Mikasa stood then, smoothing out her skirt and turning to Eren. “We’re leaving.”

Anger flashed across Eren’s face, the emotion rising within him. He wanted to argue, but the blazing look in Mikasa’s eyes made him feel like that would be useless. Besides, it didn’t look like she was giving up on this. It looked like she was just giving up on Nile.

Standing as well, they ignored Nile’s sigh of frustration and his request for them to just wait.

They didn’t. They walked out.

When they reached Eren’s truck and entered, the brunet turned to his sister to speak when a voice came from the back seat.

“That guy needs surgery to get his head out of his ass.”

Eren let out a shout and whipped around. Mikasa didn’t make a sound, but she tensed and also turned, the two of them staring at the occupant in the back seat.

Levi was leaning back against the seat, arms crossed and eyes closed, as if he were taking a nap. He was alone, but that didn’t mean Hanji and Mike weren’t lurking around somewhere. They were pretty good at lurking, Eren had found out, considering the one time he’d exited the bathroom in the nude and been looking for a fresh pair of boxers for a good minute before Hanji had cleared their throat and made their presence known.

Why it had taken them a minute, Eren still didn’t know. He just knew it had been a minute because Levi had chewed them out for it. Hanji thought it was funny.

“What are you doing here?”

“Why wouldn’t I be here?” Levi asked back, missing the slightly annoyed look on Mikasa’s face. “You’re going to see Annie, I don’t plan on waiting around at home.”

“You’re not allowed to leave Shiganshina,” Eren reminded him.

“I’m not, I’m going to stay in the car. Shiganshina plates, Shiganshina land.”

“That’s not how it works,” Eren sighed.

“You’ll make things worse,” Mikasa said after a short silence. “Eren and I will go, see what we can find.”

“And I suppose you have an extremely keen sense of smell.”

“Humans can smell bullshit too,” she said dryly.

“I think he meant that in a more literal sense,” Eren commented carefully. Mikasa glared at him, but Levi made a noise of agreement.

It made sense to bring a Werewolf. They would be able to sniff out anything suspicious in the area, which was something a human wouldn’t be able to do. Of course, having Levi come with them was out of the question, because him going anywhere near the city border would have him back in jail.

Eren didn’t know the specifics of his release, but he could only assume that he was out on bail. He didn’t want Levi going back to jail, whether it was the full moon or not.

“Then we’re going to Annie’s,” Mikasa said. “With a Werewolf.”

“Glad we’re on the same page,” Levi commented.

She turned to glare at him. “I never said it would be you.”

* * *

“This is exciting! I mean, not exciting because, yikes, people missing and all, but it’s still super exciting! Isn’t this exciting?” Hanji’s head was sticking out between the two front seats, the Werewolf grinning excitedly while looking back and forth between Mikasa and Eren.

He felt like he was getting used to how weird they were, but Mikasa seemed to be regretting not letting Levi come. Mikasa was a lot calmer and, well, _normal_  compared to Hanji, and she seemed to be regretting having chosen them instead of Mike.

The only reason they’d settled for Hanji was because Mike was the only person strong enough to keep Levi contained long enough for them to leave without him. Eren felt like he was going to get shit for that when he got back, but for now he tried not to dwell on it.

“You seem particularly cheerful for someone whose friend is missing,” Mikasa said dryly when Hanji stopped for air.

“I’m just trying to make the best of a horrible situation. We found the Caster! Now all we have to do is find out where she’s keeping the others, and everyone’s happy. You’re happy, I’m happy, Eren’s happy—”

“Annie’s not happy.”

“Yeah, but she kidnapped people, she deserves to be unhappy. That, or a stern talking to.”

Eren felt like Annie was going to get more than a “stern talking to” when this was all over. He just didn’t understand what was happening. He didn’t understand why Annie was doing this.

They had been friends for years. _Years_! He’d known her almost as long as he’d known Armin. The only person he’d known for longer than Annie was Mikasa. Why would she be doing this? If she was really a Caster, and she needed Eren, why wouldn’t she just tell him? She could _ask_  for whatever she needed and he would give it to her. There was no need for her to be attempting to kill Levi, _kidnapping_  people and framing others for their disappearances!

Then again, he wasn’t sure Levi was being framed so much as everything just being _really_  bad timing. After all, Annie had no way of knowing that Levi had left a threatening voicemail on Jean’s phone before his disappearance. That was just a happy accident. Well, happy for Annie. Not so much for Levi.

“What am I even supposed to say to her?” Eren asked quietly, interrupting another long monologue from Hanji.

“How about, ‘give me back my friends you crazy bitch’?” Hanji offered with a brilliant grin.

“You have no tact,” he muttered. As upset as he was about all this, Annie was still his friend. He felt like someone had punched him in the chest. The dull ache that had appeared at the discovery of Annie being the one out to get him seemed to be growing into a more raging pain, heart clenching in his chest every time he thought about it.

“For now, we shouldn’t let her know that we’re onto her,” Mikasa insisted. “We need to make sure we find the others before we do anything. Nile won’t be happy if he finds out what we’re up to.”

Eren said nothing, turning slowly and making his way down the street towards Annie’s house. He stopped on the road in front of her house, staring up at it and feeling sick. He still couldn’t believe this was happening. He still couldn’t believe it was Annie. A part of him was actually convinced Mikasa was wrong, but he didn’t know how to tell her that.

He felt like a part of him was here right now to prove it _wasn’t_  Annie. If he could just get proof that it wasn’t her, they could leave and get back to work finding out who was _really_  responsible for all of this.

“How are we supposed to do this?” Mikasa asked. “She knows about Levi, which means it’s not exactly going to escape her notice that Hanji’s a Werewolf.”

“We can wing it.” Hanji kicked open their door and stepped out of the truck. “She’s in the shower, so we have time to snoop around. No one else is in the house and I’ll hear when she’s done.”

Eren opened his mouth to tell them to get the fuck back in the truck, but Hanji just shut the door and headed up the drive.

They didn’t even make it to the door. They passed Annie’s car, paused, then turned back to it. Eren and Mikasa shared a look before kicking open their own doors and jumping out, moving quickly to Hanji’s side. They were inhaling deeply, moving along the car and leaning forward slightly, as if trying to get a better scent.

“What do you smell?”

“Jean.”

Eren didn’t know whether the feeling in his gut was relief or panic. As much as he didn’t like having to admit Annie was behind this, if it truly _was_  her, then they’d found their kidnapper and they could find Jean and Armin.

And Erwin, he supposed. He liked the guy, he did, but Jean and Armin were his priority right now.

“Is Jean okay?” Eren asked urgently. “Is he alive?”

“I’m a Werewolf, not a psychic,” Hanji said, their voice a little sharper than usual. Eren could only guess they smelled something else.

A breeze picked up then, cold and biting, ruffling all their hair while they stood beside Annie’s car, Hanji still staring at it intently.

“We need to go,” they said suddenly.

“What? We just got here!”

“Yes, but we know for sure it’s her now, and I smell wolfsbane.”

“How do you know?” Eren asked.

“Quite easily, actually.”

Eren and Mikasa barely had time to catch Hanji when they fell backwards. They weighed a lot more than they looked and the two of them had to struggle to get them back to the car. Mikasa seemed to be carrying most of the weight, which was embarrassing, but Eren didn’t drink his milk as a child.

Once Hanji was back in the car, Eren pulled out his phone and dialled Levi, Mikasa leaning over Hanji worriedly.

_“Where are you? Are you okay?”_ Levi asked immediately.

“Hanji inhaled wolfsbane, what do I do?!” He had flashbacks of Levi lying on his kitchen floor, black blood on his lips and his chest still. If Hanji died right now, he was going to have a fullblown panic attack.

_“How much did they inhale? Was it blown right in their face? Did they swallow any?”_

“I don’t—they were smelling Annie’s car and mentioned smelling it. The wind picked up right before they passed out, so there may have been remnants on her car.”

_“But they didn’t have a large amount blown right in their face?”_

“No.”

Levi let out a small sigh, half-relief and half-annoyance. _“They’re fine. Annie probably used it to subdue Erwin and the wind blew remnants into Hanji’s face, like you said. As long as it wasn’t a large quantity purposefully blown right in their face as a powder or smoke or anything, they’ll be fine. Shouldn’t be out more than a few minutes.”_

That was a relief, but not by much. He didn’t like that Hanji had passed out at all. It was hard to argue that Annie was truly behind this when Hanji had smelled Jean in Annie’s car and had passed out because of wolfsbane.

_“Did they smell anything else?”_

“Jean,” Eren muttered. “They smelled Jean.”

_“Good, it means we can probably track him. You should come back, keep your distance from her. Hanji will stay back with you, Mike and I can go out and hunt tonight.”_

“You can’t leave Shiganshina,” Eren reminded him, sighing in frustration.

_“Not as Levi Ackerman.”_

It took a second for Eren to understand what he meant, but once he did, he still didn’t like it any better.

They were going to turn into wolves, and hunt as a pack. A good idea, really, unless they stumbled across hunters who shot at them.

Human or wolf, it didn’t matter. Levi always seemed to get into trouble.

* * *

“Between you and Jean, I’m really starting to wonder what kind of exciting adventure I’m missing out on,” Connie said while he typed away on Eren’s computer.

Eren had absolutely no idea what he was doing, but he trusted Connie to do what had to be done considering apparently he _wasn’t_  a useless hacker like they’d all believed. Who knew? Worked out well for him, though, because maybe he could get himself some answers.

“No adventure, just looking into some stuff,” Eren muttered, probably not incredibly convincingly. It wasn’t exactly like he was going to tell Connie what they were up to. He didn’t need to put someone else’s life in danger.

Actually, even having him there might be a bad thing. He probably should’ve thought that through a little better...

Connie’s typing stopped and for a second, Eren thought he might be finished, but then his friend turned to eye him briefly. “I’m not gonna go missing like Jean and Armin, am I? I’ve noticed that people who are friends with you seem to be getting kidnapped or arrested lately.”

Eren felt his chest constrict with guilt at the comment, but didn’t have time to respond because Mikasa smacked Connie hard upside the head, making him shout in pain, and ordered him back to work. He muttered something about slavedrivers before turning back to the computer and continuing what he was doing.

Eren muttered about needing air and left the room, heading down the stairs and outside. His parents were watching a TV show in the living room, but his mother called out for him not to go far and he confirmed he wouldn’t. It was already dark out, and given the events of the past few days, most people didn’t like anyone they cared about being outside. Sasha’s family refused to let her leave the house, even during daylight hours most days. Connie’s mother probably thought he was in his room, because that was kind of where he should have been right now. He seemed unconcerned with the disappearances, and thought it was the government’s doing.

Apparently he was a conspiracy nut. Eren had never known that, but then again, he hadn’t spent much time around Connie the past few years. He supposed it made sense, given his love of hacking and causing general mayhem with Sasha. The most he saw of the other man was when he went to Jean’s house and waved at him on the roof while heading up the drive. Didn’t really give them much of an opportunity to catch up.

Stepping out onto the front porch, he shut the door and took a seat on the steps leading down, looking up and down the deserted street. It was sad to see things like this. He remembered them being similar back when Mikasa’s parents had disappeared. The streets silent and empty after dark. All doors locked and windows shut. Stores closing early.

Things like this never happened in their little town. When they did, it was a shock to the entire community. It was a reminder that bad things happened everywhere, and not just in big cities.

“Shouldn’t you be inside?”

Eren jumped and whipped around, seeing Levi standing behind him on the porch.

“How did you—?”

“I jumped over the railing.” He motioned the other end of the porch with a nod of his head and then took a seat beside Eren, looking up and down the street. “It’s quiet.”

“People are scared,” Eren whispered. “Some of them could explain away Jean’s disappearance to themselves as him being his usual boisterous, idiotic self. Armin is different. He’s what people call a ‘good kid,’ and him being gone means something is wrong.” Eren clenched his hands together, trying to keep himself under control.

He just didn’t know what to do anymore. Should they confront Annie? But if they did that, she might threaten to never tell them where Armin, Jean and Erwin were until they gave up Eren. At this point, Eren was scared people _would_  give him up. _He_  wanted to give himself up, but he was too much of a coward.

His hands clenched together more tightly when the urge to ask Levi what he’d found burned up his throat. He didn’t want to ask. If Levi had found anything, he would’ve said so. His silence meant they’d found nothing. It meant they still didn’t have anything to go on.

Levi seemed tense. Frustrated, angry. He seemed ready to tear someone to pieces, and Eren could _not_  let that happen. He was already suspect number one in two disappearances, it wouldn’t look good if he legitimately murdered someone.

And now Eren felt sick for thinking about that so casually. As if murdering people was part of his life now. He didn’t think Levi ever _would_  murder someone, not on purpose anyway, but still.

Levi’s head turned sharply towards the door and he stood, holding one hand out to Eren.

“They found something.”

Eren took it, allowing Levi to pull him to his feet moments before the front door opened, Mikasa starting slightly at seeing Levi but then motioning into the house.

“Connie got into Armin’s email. He has a reply from that professor.”

The three of them hurried into the house and up the stairs. If Eren’s parents noticed Levi, they didn’t comment on it. They entered Eren’s room and he practically shoved Connie out of his chair so he could sit and read over the email.

It wasn’t much, but it was _something_. More than they’d had minutes before.

The bottom part of the email was Armin’s initial contact with the professor. It was very proper and detailed, much like how Armin spoke. It outlined his connection to Erwin, explaining that he was missing and they were attempting to find him, and that the professor seemed to be the last one to have contact with him. He didn’t ask for specifics, only that he wanted to speak to him in hopes of having an idea of where they should be looking so they could find him.

The professor’s response was polite, but hesitant. He didn’t seem keen to speak to someone unknown, and he wasn’t sure he believed that Erwin was missing—though he did comment on not having heard from him in a while. He apologized but said he wasn’t going to give out information that could potentially cause Erwin more problems.

Eren could hear Levi’s breathing quickening beside him, the other man bent over with one hand pressed against the middle of Eren’s back and the other braced against the desk. When he glanced down at the hand on the desk, he could see claws beginning to lengthen, the tips of his fingers darkening, and a quick glance at his face showed the wolf was coming out.

He had never seen Levi so angry before.

“Connie, come with me.” Mikasa said from behind them. Eren heard Connie spluttering and insisting he deserved to know what was going on, but she appeared to have forcibly dragged him from the room, the door shutting loudly.

Levi was still breathing hard, his claws digging into the wooden desk, and Eren knew he was about to lose it.

Standing quickly, he turned and wrapped his arms around him, holding him tightly. Levi’s hands didn’t move from where they were, one hand having shifted with Eren so he was still pressing firmly against his back and the other still scratching into his desk. He didn’t care.

He could relate.

“Levi, it’s gonna be okay,” he insisted. “We’re gonna find them.”

“He’s been missing for weeks.” His voice sounded rougher than usual, like his vocal chords weren’t where they usually were. He was starting to half-shift right there in his bedroom with his parents downstairs. He had to calm him down before things got worse.

“I know,” Eren said, holding him tighter. He knew it wasn’t the best thing to say in this situation, but he had nothing else to offer. Erwin _had_  been missing for weeks. For all they knew, he was dead. But that didn’t mean they would stop looking for him, because as long as there was even a fraction of a percentage of hope left that he was still alive, they were going to find him.

They were going to find _all_  of them!

“Come on,” Eren released Levi, pressing his forehead against the other’s briefly. “Let’s see if we can get this professor to give us even a hint of something he was helping Erwin with.”

“We know what he was helping Erwin with,” Levi said, voice still a growl. His face looked a little contorted because of the partial shift, but Eren could tell he was trying to hold it back. Barely managing, but trying. “He was helping him with you. But he doesn’t believe we’re on Erwin’s side.”

Eren opened his mouth to agree when he paused, a thought occurring to him. This professor didn’t have proof they were all on the same side, so he didn’t want to divulge anything in case it got into the wrong hands. Maybe they could prove they were all on the same side.

“Do you still have your camera at the house?”

* * *

“Oh my God, this is so _fucked up_!”

“Right?! Who’d have thought! And I mean, Eren of all people? Really?”

“Do you think they’ve fucked while he’s been, you know...”

“That is both disgusting and intriguing. Do you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? But I mean, there’s the teeth and all. Something to worry about.” A hand rummaged through the chip bag sitting on the floor between them, coming back empty. “You have any more snacks? I’m starving.”

“You’re always starving.”

“True.” A ding sounded and a small alert appeared at the corner of the screen. “Holy shit, the dude replied! Click it! Click it!”

“Clicking! I’m doing it!”

Silence while they both read, their heads moving closer together so they both had a better view of the words on the screen. One hand came up to slap another when the scrolling began to speed up, but it was hard to remain calm while reading over the words.

“Holy shit.”

“We need to tell them this now.”

“But they’ll know we were snooping in Eren’s email!”

“Connie!” Sasha smacked him hard upside the head. “Eren’s life is in danger right now! Do you really think they’ll care if we were snooping?!”

Rubbing the back of his head, annoyance flickering across his face, Connie supposed she had a point. His gaze landed on the screen once more, re-reading the words. The professor that had previously ignored Armin’s attempts to make friendly had come back with a few email attachments between himself and Erwin, as well as a long, detailed explanation of the suspected history between Eren and Levi. Suspected only because the professor’s language skills weren’t that great and the book he was using was in another language.

But the history he spoke of apparently spanned back hundreds of years. Connie wouldn’t have believed a word of it if he hadn’t seen the email sent from Eren’s outbox—he really needed to find himself a better password, it had been too easy to crack.

Levi was a Werewolf. A legitimate Werewolf. And apparently someone they all knew—Eren hadn’t mentioned a name—was some evil Witch-like being called a Caster who was after Eren and had kidnapped Jean, Armin, and some other dude who was apparently friends with Levi.

And now, according to this email, Eren was...

“Shit.” Connie dove for his phone and yanked the charger out, scrolling through his contacts to Eren’s name. He hit the call button, ignoring that it was four in the morning, and listened to it ring.

And ring.

And ring some more.

“Come on, dude! Shit!” Connie pulled it away from his ear, feeling his heart rate spike. Every time someone in town seemed to figure something out about this, they disappeared. Connie wasn’t stupid, he’d noticed the way Jean had been snooping around and suddenly gone missing. And then Armin had called to ask him one thing about hacking that Jean hadn’t taught him before disappearing, and then poof! Armin was gone.

Connie knew he and Sasha were next unless they could get ahead of this. Unless he could tell someone important about this.

Hanging up on Eren, he felt his palms sweating and glanced at Sasha. She seemed to be on the same train of thought as him because her eyes kept flickering nervously between the window and the bedroom door, as if she expected someone to come barging in any moment now.

He called another number, and this time, someone answered.

They sounded out of breath, terrified, and in the middle of some kind of windy area. They were probably outside.

_“Connie, I don’t have time for you right now!”_

“Mikasa, listen,” he insisted. “I know you’ll kill me for this later, but I got into Eren’s email and I found the videos of him and Levi. I know what Levi is, and I saw the reply he just got from the professor. Eren’s in trouble, you need to—”

_“It’s too late for that!”_  Mikasa shouted, her voice shrill and panicked. _“It’s too fucking **late** for that shit, Connie!”_

A cold chill crept its way down Connie’s spine at her words, hearing someone shouting at Mikasa on the other end of the phone. “What do you mean it’s too late?”

_“He’s gone!”_ Mikasa shouted back, almost hysterical. _“Eren is fucking **gone**!”_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Watching the tennis match you all had with yourselves over "Is it Annie? It's too obvious to be Annie. It's not Annie. But maybe it is Annie? Maybe she made it obvious to make me think it was too obvious so I thought it wasn't Annie? Maybe it's actually not Annie and she made it obvious in hopes I would think it was Annie but then would realize it was too obvious and not think it was Annie?" etc. etc. was legit the highlight of this entire fic for me -evil smile-


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late, real life has been killing me. 
> 
> Supernatural (c) Eric Kripke  
> Harry Potter (c) J.K. Rowling  
> Characters (c) Hajime Isayama

Levi couldn’t stop pacing. His ability to keep himself under control was cracking and he kept feeling his fangs elongate or his nails sharpen or fur beginning to break out across his skin. He always managed to stop it from getting any further, but the more antsy he got, the harder it was to control. He _wanted_  to shift entirely and run out of the house to find Eren. He wanted it so bad he could taste it.

But he didn’t know where to look. He didn’t know what to _do_! Fuck, he didn’t even know how this could possibly have _happened_ , which was why Hanji was on the phone with their Caster friend to get some answers.

Mikasa was sitting on the couch, and she had barely moved since arriving. She was still motionless and staring wide-eyed at the floor. It barely looked like she was breathing. Levi could hear her heart pounding rapidly in her chest, and he felt like the only reason she wasn’t panicking was because she was still in too much shock to panic.

Levi heard her phone begin to vibrate, something it had done three times since her arrival. Just like the previous times, she pulled it from her pocket, stared down at it for a few seconds, and then rejected the call before replacing it in her pocket.

“Parents?” he asked. Who else would it be?

Her gaze shot to him, eyes cold and expression closed off.

“They’re worried, you should probably answer.”

“And tell them what?” she snapped, voice low and dangerous. “That everything’s fine? That Eren’s just in the bathroom and we’ll come home soon? That there isn’t the possibility of him being dead in the morning and me lying through my teeth right now?”

They stared at one another for a long moment. She was right, and Levi knew she was, but it didn’t sit right with him. He knew her parents were beside themselves with worry. One of them had woken up during the night and then Mikasa’s phone had started to ring. He knew seeing both of their children’s bedrooms empty, and neither of them answering their phones, was sending them into a panic. The wolf inside him was snarling and snapping desperately, fear over Eren, and worry over his parents.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Levi and Mikasa both turned when Levi’s landline began to ring. It was the first time it had since they’d convened at his house. He hesitated, staring at it. He had a fairly good idea of who it was, and if it _was_  Eren’s parents... He didn’t want to answer. He suddenly understood where Mikasa was coming from, panic gripping him sharply at the prospect of telling them everything was fine when it so obviously was not.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?” Mikasa asked, voice low and dark, a touch of mockery in her tone.

He just turned to glare at her, and they were silent for a time, listening to Hanji babble into their phone as the landline went silent. Mikasa’s eyes shifted away first, glancing in the direction of Levi’s friend.

“If you know a Caster, why don’t we just ask them to cast a location spell?”

Levi felt rage boiling up from his stomach at those words, offended she didn’t think that was the _first_  thing he tried when Erwin had gone missing. What did she think he’d done to try and locate him, use Google?

“You can’t use a spell like that when another Caster is involved,” he said sharply, angry once more. “They know how to counter it. We tried with Erwin.”

That, at least, seemed to shame her a little and she shifted her gaze back out the window, a momentary truce between them.

Levi hated this. His emotions were all over the place. He was terrified, of course, but he kept shifting towards anger and then disassociation, and then fear again. He knew Mikasa was experiencing the same thing, even if both of them managed to keep their expressions mostly in check. He wanted to find Eren.

He _wanted_  to fucking find _Eren_. Right _now_!

“Thanks Ilse,” Hanji said, reappearing in the living room. “I’ll be in touch.” They hung up and looked at Levi. They seemed more pissed than he’d ever remembered seeing them. They were probably angry at the fact that Erwin had gone missing trying to find out information to protect Eren, and now Levi and Hanji had both lost Eren. They’d essentially made Erwin’s sacrifice be in vain.

Levi could relate, he felt that way, too. Like a failure.

“Ilse said that it’s possible Annie used a time displacement spell. Something that froze us in place while she did whatever she pleased in the background.”

“She couldn’t have done this alone,” Levi insisted, hearing a car pull up outside and doors opening and shutting before hurried footsteps pounded up the porch steps. “She might be a Caster, but Eren’s survival instincts are pretty strong. When he’s awake, he’s better at fighting it off, and he definitely wasn’t asleep when she took him. She had help.”

“Of course she had help!” a voice said from the door. Levi turned to see the girl who always hung out with Connie on Jean’s roof barrelling into his home along with Connie himself. He was fairly certain her name was Sasha, though he’d never heard anyone speak to her directly. “Annie’s always had those two weirdos following her around.”

“What weirdos?” Hanji asked, Mike shutting the front door behind himself while walking in. He’d gone to get them after they’d called Mikasa. If these people knew something that Levi had been trying to find out for months, he was _not_  going to let that knowledge disappear again. Not this time.

Not when Eren was gone and no one could get into his email account except Connie.

“Reiner and Bertholdt,” Connie said, a very clear “duh!” in his tone. “They’ve all been friends for years, almost as long as Annie’s been friends with Eren! And we need to get moving on finding him before something bad happens.”

“We are going to sit and talk about what you know before we do anything else,” Levi snapped, motioning the couch where Mikasa was still seated. He saw her twitch out of the corner of his eye, but wasn’t prepared for her leaping onto him and tackling him to the ground. All the air rushed out of his lungs and she managed to get one punch across his face before Mike lifted her off him, her legs still kicking.

“This is _your_  fault!” she screamed at him. “All of this is your fault! Before you showed up, everything was fine! Now everyone I care about is gone and it’s all your fault!”

“You think I haven’t lost anything here?!” Levi shouted back angrily, cutting her off mid-tirade. “You think I’m not fucking terrified right now?! Get your head out of your ass, it’s not a fucking hat, Mikasa!”

The explosion seemed to have startled her into silence, her chest still rising and falling rapidly, but she made no attempts to break free of Mike’s firm grip.

It was like that one outburst opened the floodgates, and once Levi started shouting, he couldn’t make himself stop.

“Erwin has been missing for weeks. _Weeks_! Erwin, who is my closest friend, who means _everything_  to me, has been missing for fucking _weeks_! I have spent all of my time and effort these past few weeks trying to keep Eren safe while spending barely any of my time trying to find someone who means more to me than you could ever _possibly_  understand! And I turn my back for one second, one _fucking_  second, and Eren is gone! You have no idea how I feel right now! You have no idea what I’ve lost, and what I continue to lose! You lost your parents? Cry me a fucking river, Mikasa, because I’ve lost _so much more_! My parents, my best friend, my fiancé! I ruined Hanji’s life!” He motioned Hanji angrily, who seemed to be trying to disappear into the wall. “I got Eld killed! Then I found Eren, and I thought he was one thing, _one thing_  that I was allowed to have! One thing that I could keep without it being wrenched out from beneath me! And guess what? Guess how that fucking turned out! I lost Erwin, and I lost Eren! The number of people I have left that I care about are literally standing in this fucking room!” He motioned vaguely at Hanji and Mike. “So stop acting like you’ve lost the most in this room, Mikasa, because you haven’t! You still have people in your life, I’m losing _everyone_!”

Without another word to her, he turned to Connie, shouted at him to sit down, and then crossed his arms and glared while he and Sasha hastened to do so.

Mikasa was released and she stormed to the corner without a word, sitting down by the window and scowling angrily out of it.

Levi could understand her anger and frustration. He felt it, too. A part of him wondered if his appearance hadn’t made things worse. If he hadn’t antagonized Annie, would it have gone this far? If he’d stayed away, never listened to his instincts, would Eren have been taken and everyone else would’ve been left alone? Would he have cared?

He wouldn’t have known Eren. He probably wouldn’t even have noticed barring a slight uncomfortable ache in his chest from the wolf. But it was different now.

Now he _cared_. He cared about Eren. He cared about Erwin. He even cared about Jean and Armin. He cared about the people who were gone, who’d been taken, and it was killing him not knowing what was happening.

“Start talking,” he ordered, Connie shuffling through papers he’s obviously just printed. Some of them were smudged, as if the ink hadn’t fully dried. Connie must’ve had an old printer for that to happen.

“Good news is, we have at least another seventeen hours before anything happens. Bad news is, we only have seventeen hours to find Eren before whatever is going to happen to him happens.”

“Explain,” Levi ordered.

“Look, I don’t really know the full details of this right now, all right?” Connie waved the pages somewhat frantically, as if worried Levi would eat him if he didn’t show enough spirit.

Levi was still debating eating him.

“The way the professor explained it, there’s three different rituals, so it depends on what exactly Annie’s hoping to achieve, but he admitted he couldn’t read this stuff that well so I’m not taking his word for it.” He flipped through a few more pages that looked yellowed and fraying, like copies from an old book. The words seemed almost impossible to read, given they were from an old book which had been scanned and then printed out, but Connie didn’t seem to be bothered by it. “Okay so, my Sanskrit’s a little rusty, but—”

“You speak Sanskrit?” Mikasa asked from across the room.

Connie looked up at her, clearly annoyed with the interruption. “Yes, Mikasa, I am a man of many talents.”

She snorted doubtfully but Levi snapped at him to keep talking. The clock was ticking.

“Okay, so basically hundreds of years ago, this area was home to two large Witch covens and a few Werewolf packs. And, you know, us mere humans and all that.” Levi’s glare made it clear to Connie he should stay on point so he cleared his throat and continued. “The two Covens, leaders being Shackleton and Creighton, were always at war, trying to prove who was stronger than the other. There was discussion of a peace treaty at one point that was completely off the table when they found that some of the Creighton Coven’s teenagers had killed the heir of the Shackleton family. War broke out again and during the war, there was a lot of collateral. The Creightons had unleashed some kind of virus against any and all magic-users who didn’t share the Creighton Coven’s bloodline—apparently you don’t need to actually be related to be considered to share a bloodline in a Coven. It’s actually kind of interesting, it’s like adoption into a group or—”

“What happened with the war?” Levi snapped impatiently.

Connie jumped, startled and seeming to remember what he was meant to be talking about and he quickly got back on track. “Right. The virus. So they unleashed the virus to kill any and all magic-users who didn’t share in their bloodline. Which would’ve been fine if, you know, there hadn’t been Werewolves in the area, and because of what they are, Werewolves are technically also magic-users.”

“This is where it gets crazy!” Sasha interrupted, seeming excited. Levi just stared, waiting for her to continue. She did so with less enthusiasm, looking like she regretted making herself known since now Levi was glaring at _her_  instead of Connie. “Uh, so the Creightons were bad and had done something awful. The Werewolves were all dying alongside the Shackleton Coven. The ones who survived in the Shackleton Coven, feeling responsible, had gone out to gather up and protect all of the Werewolves they found who hadn’t perished. They felt like the only reason the packs were dying was because they had inadvertently dragged the wolves into a war that wasn’t theirs.”

“Basically the Werewolves and the Shackleton Coven formed an alliance,” Connie continued, “which apparently was unheard of back then. Casters and Werewolves don’t get along.”

“That’s still true,” Hanji said, but a glare from Levi shut them up.

“Exactly,” Connie said, turning briefly to Hanji before facing Levi again. “It was super rare and unheard of, so when the war continued, they were on a roll and they just decimated the Creighton Coven, forcing them to flee. Once the war was over between the two Covens, the last surviving pack leader, a guy named Zegrath, said that in exchange for saving the lives of the Werewolves in the area at the expense of many of the Coven’s own lives, he was willing to do a blood oath with the Shackleton Coven’s leader.”

“A blood oath?” Levi frowned. “What’s that?”

“Kind of like an unbreakable vow from Happy Potter?” Sasha shrugged. “We haven’t really deciphered that far yet.”

“What we _do_  know,” Connie continued, still speaking quickly and excitedly, as if this were all a game and not real people’s lives, “is that they formed this blood oath through this ritual so that all descendants of the Zegrath line would always and forever protect descendants of the Shackleton line. So as long as both lines existed, one was bound and obligated to protect the other, even if they didn’t want to.”

Levi felt a lot of eyes on him at those words and he clenched his fists where they were tucked beneath his arms. So if this was true, and what Connie and Sasha were explaining was really the history of the area, then that meant that he was a descendant of this Zegrath pack leader. And Eren was a descendant of the Shackleton Coven leader. It made sense, and also explained why he felt compelled to protect, not only Eren, but his family as well. He could only assume that Carla was the direct descendant, and Grisha marrying into the family made him worth protecting.

But not Mikasa, for whatever reason. Maybe the blood oath didn’t stretch to adopted children.

“So are we saying that Annie is part of this other Coven?” Hanji asked, looking excited. “The Cretins, or whatever?”

“Creightons,” Connie corrected.

“Like I said: or whatever.” Hanji began to pace, eyes bright and excitement mounting. Levi was sure he wouldn’t like where their brain was headed, so he ignored them for the most part, focussing back on Connie and Sasha.

“What would Annie want with Eren? And if he’s a Caster, why hasn’t he mentioned having any abilities?”

“Well, it’s possible they’re dormant.” Connie flipped through some of the pages he’d printed then turned one to show Levi. It was in some weird language he couldn’t read—likely Sanskrit—so showing him the page did literally nothing for him. “Apparently blood oaths are very hard to do and consume a lot of power. It’s possible that the power of that particular line diminished drastically over the years, and Eren might not have any magic in him at all. Also, if the ideals and teachings of the family didn’t continue, he probably wouldn’t even know how to tap into it. I mean, Annie would’ve needed someone to teach her about her powers, so obviously her family knows about their history.”

“What do they want with Eren?” Mikasa asked, the question leaving her lips before Levi could ask it.

“Power.” Connie shrugged. “The rivalry between the two Covens talks about how they learned that two strong individuals being bound together could strengthen the Coven as a whole. Apparently binding was something unique to the Shackleton Coven, they were the ones who’d discovered how to use it to heighten their abilities. Inter-Coven relations was difficult though, and they had to be careful because of incest and all that, but there are outside powers that can make people stronger. Generally, when one of the Coven is bound, they get a mark somewhere on their body. Uh, like a tattoo or...” Connie was beginning to flip through pages again, but Levi had gone still at the words. He could feel Mikasa’s eyes on his back, but he didn’t turn.

A mark on their body?

“Here.” Connie yanked out a page and turned it, showing the exact same symbol that was currently burned into Levi’s inner wrist. “When a member of the Shackleton line binds with someone else, this appears on their skin. The book wasn’t super clear about what happened to the other party. As far as I can tell, nothing happens if they’re a regular human, but I think that if they’re of Supernatural descent, they should also get the mark somewhere.”

“Like this?” Levi asked, holding up his arm.

Connie stared at his arm, the papers in his hand falling back onto his lap. Sasha’s mouth was hanging open and she grabbed at the sheets Connie had dropped, staring at the picture printed on the top one.

“Holy shit,” she said in awe, looking back up at Levi. “Holy shit, you and Eren are bound!”

“What does that mean?” Hanji asked. “Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?”

“Neither, it just means that uh...” Sasha blushed and cleared her throat, then she and Connie shared an embarrassed smile.

“Spit it out,” Levi snapped.

“It just means Eren’s given himself to you,” Connie said.

“What, like sex?” Hanji asked.

“No, it’s more than that, it’s like... Eren would die for Levi. Eren has chosen who he wants to spend his life with, and as a Supernatural being, if Levi has the mark too, it means he’s chosen the same thing. It’s like a promise to remain together, but it doesn’t have to be romantic. It can mean anything from friendship to partner, so having the mark doesn’t mean the person you’re bound with is someone you’re going to love in a romantic sense.”

“As exciting as Eren and Levi’s undying love for one another is,” Mikasa said dryly from behind him, clearly ignoring the ‘non-romantic’ comment from Connie, “can we get back on track? You said the purpose of Annie taking Eren was for power. How does that work?”

“Well, usually, with someone who isn’t bound.” Connie rubbed his hand against his shaved head and frowned down at the pages in his lap. “I mean, like I said, there’s a number of reasons she could want him. Power is the main one, but Casters also often apparently want to have children with other Casters. She could potentially be looking to have his kids.”

“That seems unlikely,” Levi said dryly. “What else?”

“Well, this book was more focussed on the history of the Shackletons, not so much the history of Casters as a whole. They just talked about three main rituals for increasing a Coven’s power. One involves having children together, one involves a forced binding which usually leads to having children and even if it doesn’t, being bound strengthens both sides, and the third involves stealing the other’s powers.”

“How does that happen?” Levi asked with a frown.

“No idea.”

Levi glared at Connie, who threw both hands in the air in defeat. “Dude! I just found out, like, three hours ago that you were a Werewolf! I’m not an encyclopaedia, I think I deserve a little recognition for having given you all this information! Cut me some slack for not knowing how to steal another Caster’s powers!”

“You mentioned we had seventeen hours,” Mikasa cut in. “Why did you say that?”

“Well, the book talks about the rituals for increase in power needing to happen around midnight. Something about the moon and stars increasing the chances of the transfer or something. So we have until midnight to find Eren before Annie rapes him or something.”

“I think it’s more likely she’s going to try and take his powers. She doesn’t seem like the mothering type,” Sasha cut in. “But since we don’t know how that works, we should probably find him sooner rather than later.”

“You’re not finding anyone,” Levi said, motioning the two of them while looking at Mike. He moved forward to stand behind them, putting one hand on either of their shoulders. Both of them paled.

“Oh Jesus, you’re gonna eat us.”

“Wha—no.” Levi turned to Mikasa. “Why does everyone in your town think I want to eat them?”

She just shrugged in answer, but Levi could tell how tense she was. He understood, given none of them knew what Annie was going to do with Eren, but at least they had seventeen hours to find him.

And Levi had an idea on how to do that, too.

“You two are going to Trost with Mike, and you’re going to stay there until we find Eren.”

“And if you don’t find Eren?” Sasha asked in a low voice.

“Guess you’ll have to learn to live in Trost.” Levi nodded towards the door and Mike grabbed the material of both of their shirts and hauled them up. Half of the pages on Connie’s lap fell onto the floor and Levi motioned for Hanji to pick them up. They glared at him but obeyed, grabbing them all so they could give them back to Connie in case they were still needed.

“He’s our friend too, you know. So’s Jean,” Connie argued.

“And Armin,” Sasha added.

“There are too many people involved, and too many people going missing or getting hurt. I’m not going to add you two to the list.” He shifted his gaze to Mike. “Bring them to Trost, and keep them under watch. Don’t tell Zackly any of this. If you don’t hear from us by morning, start making plans for a new pack leader.”

He saw Hanji turn to him sharply at those words, but he ignored them. Mike just gave him a long, hard look before pushing Sasha and Connie lightly in the back to force them out towards the door. Levi followed, standing in the doorway to watch them physically get into the car and drive away, not wanting them to go missing like Armin had.

Then again, everything was laid out now. He had all of his answers, including the mark on his wrist. He looked down at it, realizing Eren could never say Levi was only with him because of the protectiveness of the wolf. That mark had appeared on his skin months ago, before he and Eren had even become friends. It had appeared when he’d realized how much he cared about him. Levi had wanted to stay with him almost since the moment he’d met him. Eren’s own mark had only appeared recently, after Erwin’s disappearance.

Levi would’ve been depressed about that if he’d had actual time to dwell on it. Given he didn’t, he just turned and headed back into the living room, slamming the front door behind him.

“So what’s the plan?” Hanji asked, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. They seemed particularly displeased with him. “We sit back and hope for the best? How exactly are we supposed to even _find_  Eren, anyway?”

“The same way I found him the first time,” Levi insisted, striding across the room and grabbing his car keys off the coffee table. “I drive until I turn around.”

* * *

“Eren!”

The voice sounded distorted, and panicked, and strangely familiar.

“Eren, wake up! Eren!”

He didn’t want to wake up. Waking up meant facing the pain he knew he was going to be in and he was all kinds of happy _not_  to be dealing with that, thank you very much.

Something small hit him in the face, right under his left eye and the slight sting was enough to force him back to consciousness, along with all the other pains that came with it. His mouth tasted like something had crawled into it and died. His head was killing him, as if he’d downed a bottle of tequila and his brain was teaching him never to do that again. Everything hurt, which made the fact that a pebble hitting him below the eye having woken him even more ridiculous than it could possibly be. And yet, here he was.

“Eren!”

This time when his name was called, he let out a pathetic sounding groan and attempted to roll over. It was only an attempt—and an unsuccessful one, at that—because he heard chains clink and his movement was immediately stunted. Forcing open is eyes, they struggled to focus on his wrists, which were chained together with large iron cuffs. Green eyes followed the length of chain the short distance between his bound wrists and the wall. It had barely enough length to allow him to lie on his side like he was. It didn’t have enough length to allow him to roll over. He’d have to sit up if he wanted to turn.

Grabbing the chain with both hands and using it to tug himself up into a seated position, Eren turned and struggled to get his eyes to focus. He heard a sigh of relief long before he could identify where it had come from.

“Eren,” they said, relieved. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Bringing his hands up to rub at his eyes, the action managed to clear his vision ever so slightly and he looked up again.

Armin was staring straight at him, big blue eyes wide and scared. He was hanging from the ceiling, toes barely touching the ground, and each inhale seemed to cause him physical pain. It made sense, considering the position he was in. But he was alive, and that was all that mattered right now.

Eren’s gaze shifted past Armin and his heart clenched in his chest.

“Jean!”

He tried to stand but the shortness of the chain keeping him trapped against the wall had him slamming back down on his knees hard.

“He’s alive,” Armin reassured him, turning to glance briefly at his neighbour. “He’s still breathing. He got knocked around for getting mouthy.”

Jean was also hanging from the ceiling, but whoever had strung him up obviously recognized that Jean would asphyxiate relatively quickly if he was unconscious and left to dangle by the wrists. They’d loosened the chains for him so that he was resting on his knees beside Armin, arms still raised above his head but most of his weight on his legs.

The entire right half of his face was covered in blood, as if he’d been injured and no one had bothered to stop the blood flow. It sickened Eren to know that was probably exactly what had happened.

“Who hit him?” Eren asked, voice low and dangerous.

“Reiner.” Armin spat the name as if it were a swear word. “Jean was mouthing off at him for how he was treating Erwin.”

Eren honestly hadn’t even given a second’s thought to Erwin, too focussed on the fact that both of his friends were here and alive. Injured, but alive. He would take what he could get.

Turning to survey the rest of the room, he found that the opposite wall on the other side of the—warehouse? Were they in some kind of warehouse?—area was covered in small, sectioned cages. They were all very obviously made of silver and Eren could see someone lying motionless in one of them.

“Is he alive?” Eren asked, voice quieter than he’d meant for it to be.

Erwin didn’t look alive. He didn’t look like he was breathing at all, and if Erwin died here... Eren didn’t know what he’d do. After everyone Levi had lost, he couldn’t lose Erwin, too. He _couldn’t_. Eren _needed_  him to be alive, for Levi’s sake.

Armin’s silence did not go unnoticed and Eren’s head whipped in his direction.

“Armin, is he alive?” There was a hint of desperation in his tone this time.

“I don’t know,” Armin admitted quietly after a few moments of silence. “I haven’t seen him move in hours. Even when Jean was yelling at them to leave him alone... With the silver and all the wolfsbane they keep blowing in there and... Eren, I’m sorry.”

“Erwin!” Eren shouted. He saw Armin jump out of the corner of his eye, but the mass in the cage didn’t move. “Erwin, wake up! Come on, you’re a big, bad Werewolf, you can’t just lie there and _die_  like this! Levi’s coming for you! You have to hang on, just _hang on_!”

His tone had a note of desperation to it again. He knew he was being stupid. He knew what Armin had said was true, but he couldn’t believe it. He _wouldn’t_  believe it. Erwin was one of Levi’s closest friends, and he didn’t care _who_  he had to beat up, there was no way Erwin was dead.

Erwin was not _allowed_  to be dead!

“Erwin!”

* * *

“This is the most inefficient method I have ever seen for locating a person,” Mikasa muttered while she trudged along behind Levi and Hanji. She’d already stepped into two mud patches, tripped half a dozen times, almost killed herself stumbling over tree roots, and gotten hit in the face by low hanging branches.

Twice.

Normally she wasn’t as clumsy as this, but _normally_  she had the incredibly useful ability to _see_! Right now, she could barely see her own hand in front of her face and the only reason she hadn’t gotten lost yet was because every time she began to stray, Hanji would lightly take her arm and steer her back on course. Stupid wolves and their stupid night vision.

“If you’ve got a better idea,” Levi snapped, “I’m all fucking ears.”

Mikasa had to almost physically restrain herself from throttling him. She only managed because he was her bloodhound, leading her right to Eren.

Kind of. He wasn’t so much sniffing as he was “sensing.” They’d walk for a while until Levi determined if he felt more or less anxious. If he felt more anxious, they turned around. If he felt less anxious, they stayed the course. She and Levi had started arguing heavily over every little thing over the past hour, and she knew why.

It was just after nine at night. They had less than three hours to find Eren and the others before something awful happened. None of them had eaten for hours, they were all probably dehydrated, Mikasa needed to use the bathroom rather urgently, and to top it all off: it had started to rain. So not only was she terrified out of her mind, hungry, dehydrated and in urgent need to urinate, she was also wet and cranky stumbling through the woods in the dark.

She was going to kill Annie for this. Flat out murder the bitch. Not because of what Mikasa was experiencing right this moment, but because of everything else that had _lead_  to this moment.

And they _still_  hadn’t found Eren or the others!

Mikasa walked into Hanji when the other stopped for what felt like the millionth time.

“This way,” Levi’s voice said in the darkness, and Mikasa felt a hand close gently around her wrist, Hanji leading her in the direction Levi was evidently heading in.

She allowed herself to be lead for exactly three seconds before slamming on the brakes and wrenching her arm free.

“This is useless!” she shouted angrily. “Stupid, and useless, and a complete _fucking_  waste of time! All we’ve done for the past few hours is walk around in circles! We’re not getting anywhere, and we’re wasting time! Eren is in trouble, don’t you care?!”

“Of course I care!” Mikasa couldn’t see him in the darkness, but she knew he was right in front of her, hot breath ghosting along the skin of her cheeks with every angry exhale. “This is the only thing I know to do right now to find Eren! All you’ve done today is follow and complain! Do _you_  have any ideas, then? I’m all fucking ears! You got something to pull out of your ass besides the stick stuck up in there, now’s the time!”

She wished she had something, but she didn’t. She had nothing but the anxiousness gnawing at her stomach with each passing second. But she knew this wasn’t helping. They’d been walking in circles for hours, and they weren’t any further than they had been when they’d started.

“She’s _messing_  with us!” Mikasa blurted out. “Do you really think she wouldn’t be blocking us out right now when she’s so close to getting what she wants?” They still weren’t even sure what it _was_  Annie wanted. All they knew was that she wanted power, but there were a lot of ways for her to get that. She didn’t want to think about the possibility of Annie’s power thievery involving Eren’s death. Mikasa didn’t know what forcefully breaking a bond would do to Eren _or_  Levi, either, she just knew she’d rather not find out. But there was no way that what they were doing right now was working. Annie was sending them on a wild goose chase and Mikasa did _not_  like geese!

 _What would Jean do?_ She asked herself, frowning at the forest floor that she couldn’t even see. _If I were Jean, and I had this information, what would I do with it?_

Well first off, he would be researching the various ways someone was stripped of their power. If Annie had sex with Eren against his will, that would be horrible, but he would recover from that in time. Mikasa knew it would likely be traumatic, but he would live through that. They could help him through that.

If the bond was broken, what did that do? Would it cause Eren physical harm? What about emotional harm? And what about Levi? Would it do anything to him, as well? Again, if it was a trauma, she could live with that. She could help him get better.

But what if breaking the bond broke Eren? What if it was like ripping a piece of his soul from his body and all that remained was a shell?

And what about flat-out theft? What did stealing a person’s power do? Would it just feel uncomfortable for a few minutes, like someone was slowly pulling off a bandaid? Or would it be agonizing? Would Eren be screaming in pain, begging for it to stop? For the pain to stop or death to take him? Would it last forever once his power was taken, or only the amount of time it took to _steal_  someone’s power?

Would it kill him? Would stealing Eren’s powers kill him?

Mikasa wrapped her arms around herself and forced herself to focus, glaring harder at the darkness beneath her feet. What would Jean do if Eren was missing? If he had this information right now, which he didn’t have before, and he needed to find Eren, what would he do?

She heard the beginnings of a growl, Levi obviously losing his patience when a thought occurred to her. It was a thought that would make even Armin proud.

Mikasa pulled her phone from her pocket without a word, waving it around and cursing when she couldn’t get a signal. She wandered away from the other two, not caring if she lost them since they were never going to find Eren this way.

She had a much better idea.

Finding a signal, she opened her contacts and tapped on a name, putting the phone to her ear and listening to it ring.

If he didn’t answer in two rings, she was going to murder him.

He answered in one.

_"Yell-o, your friendly neighbourhood hacker.”_

“Connie, I need you to find me a map.”

* * *

Sasha swept everything off the large counter that separated the kitchen from the living room, Connie not feeling even a little bad about it since all the papers currently on the floor belonged to him.

He set about laying out the large map of the lower mainland across the counter, glad that whoever owned this place hadn’t known Levi’s new home well enough to not buy a map. Unfolding all the edges so it lay flat against the counter, he set his phone down on one corner, as if to keep the edge down, and then began riffling through the pages he’d saved from the counter before Sasha’s cleaning efforts had come into effect.

“Okay,” Connie said, slapping a few of the pages down and sticking the end of a Sharpie into his mouth so he could remove the cap. He did so, spitting it out across the kitchen while Mike and Sasha crowded him on both sides. “Okay, so we know that back then, Shiganshina, Stohess and Sina were one big area governed by these two Covens and the wolf packs.” He drew a large circle on the map, narrowing down their search area while Sasha flipped through the pages of the book they’d printed.

“Switch, I don’t read nerd.” She forcibly yanked Connie over to where she was and grabbed the pen from his hand, standing poised at the ready for his instructions.

Connie’s eyes were starting to hurt from all the staring he’d been doing. It wasn’t like the faded print on yellowing pages scanned and printed was the easiest thing in the world to read, especially in Sanskrit, but he ignored that and scowled at the pages.

“Most common rituals, protection of the land, blah, blah, blah,” he said quickly, eyes skirting over the words. “Ah! Aha, yes! Okay! Right here!”

 _“Connie!”_ Mikasa shouted, making him jump. He could hear the panic in her voice so he tried to remind himself that people were in danger and this wasn’t a game.

Even though he really liked puzzles.

“Okay, so they talk about the shared spiritual points for rituals, so that would be the Creightons and the Shackletons both. There’s a mention of a body of water nearby, but it’s described as being still so we’re looking at a lake.”

He glanced over at the map, where Sasha was drawing smaller circles inside his big one, eliminating some surface area but not much. Connie’s eyes returned to the page he was on.

“Still surface of water, flow of magic, epicentre of the word I can’t translate, surrounded by earth, blah, blah—”

“Wait! Surrounded by earth!” Sasha slammed her hand on the counter, making Connie jump. “What if that’s literal? Like, _literally_  surrounded by earth?” She circled around one of the lakes a little wider, including the mountain range that encompassed a large portion of Sina, near the edge of Stohess.

“Good call!” Connie grinned at her and she grinned back.

_“Keep reading! What else?!”_

Connie forced himself back to the words at Mikasa’s impatient tone, thankful it was her and not Levi, since he scared him. He only got one more clue before he hit a dead-end. They’d narrowed down the area, but not enough to determine where Eren and the others were any time soon. It was half-past ten. They were low on time.

“Are we _sure_  Annie’s going to hurt him?” Connie asked, rubbing his hand back and forth along his shaved head, enjoying the feel of it against his fingers. “I mean, it’s _Annie_. She’s wanted to marry Eren since the third grade.”

 _“She almost killed Levi! We don’t know **what**  she’s up to, and I’d rather not find out, so keep looking!”_ Mikasa snapped.

“I told you, my Sanskrit’s rusty! There are words here I’ve never seen before, it’s hard to translate what I don’t know!”

 _“Then figure it out,”_  Levi’s voice snarled down the line. _“Use the internet!”_

“Right, because you can just _Google_  Sanskrit translations,” Connie snapped, massaging his temples.

“Actually, you can.” Sasha said.

Connie’s head shot up and he found her holding her phone, aiming it in his direction to show a Google search on how to translate Sanskrit into English. A number of dictionary sites had come up.

“What? Give me that!” He snatched the phone from her hand and clicked on one of the links, annoyed that a website could think it was more useful than he was. He hadn’t wasted his youth learning dead languages for the _internet_  to one-up him!

“Okay, so that word means current,” he muttered, holding the phone in one hand and rubbing the other against his shaved head once more. “But that would imply a moving body of water when it clearly said the water was still.”

Sticking his tongue between his teeth, he read over the words again, looking at the map and then back at the pages laid out in front of him. He was just about ready to call it quits when Sasha slammed both hands down on the counter, making both him _and_  Mike jump.

“Oh... Oh!” She started flapping her arms. “Oh! Oh! Oh!”

Connie stared at her, then motioned for her to speak. “Sasha! Words! Human words!”

“Currents! Currents, like, _magic_  currents! Like epicentres of power!”

“Oh!” Connie grabbed her by the upper arms and gave her a small shake, eyes wide. “Currents of energy! Areas with a higher concentration of external force that would strengthen any magic in the vicinity!”

 _“Meaning?!”_ Mikasa’s voice was becoming shriller by the second.

“Map! Map!” Connie snapped his fingers, turning in a circle. “Fault lines! I need a map of the lower mainland showing the fault lines!”

Mike disappeared and was back in an instant, holding out a laptop open on the home screen. Connie grabbed it and opened Google—his nemesis and best friend simultaneously, apparently. He looked up the fault lines under the lower mainland, drawing them roughly on the map as quickly as he could.

“There!” Sasha slapped her hand down on the map. “Inside the mountain range, near a lake, and overlapping fault lines! _That’s_  their ritual ground!”

 _“Where?! What’s the address?!”_ Mikasa’s voice was punctuated with laboured breathing, the group on the other end obviously running through the woods to get back to a vehicle.

“It’s the old manufacturing district on the outskirts of Sina,” Connie said.

“You know, the one that went belly up when the plants shut down?” Sasha asked, leaning closer to the phone. Then she frowned. “Didn’t Bertholdt’s family use to own land out there?”

 _“His family bought some of the warehouses when they were contemplating starting up that distribution company,”_  Mikasa said, the sound of car doors slamming and an engine roaring to life coming through the phone. _“They probably bought them because of where they were located. How much time do we have?”_

 _“Just over an hour,”_  Levi’s voice said, slightly muffled on the other end since he was further away from the microphone.

_“Connie, see if you can figure out which warehouse we’re looking for. Call us back when you’ve got something.”_

Mikasa hung up.

Connie turned to Sasha. “We need to hack into the—”

“Already on it,” she said, fingers flying across the keyboard of the mystery laptop.

Connie had never felt so proud. He stood behind her and watched her work, wanting to see how far she could get on her own. He took over when she began to struggle, this was potentially life or death, he could teach her what she’d done wrong later. He managed to get into the town records relatively easily and found what he was looking for. Sending Mikasa the address via text message, he waited for her to confirm receipt before letting out a slow sigh.

Pausing for only a moment, a grin spread across his face and he looked up at Sasha, who was also grinning. They high-fived with a cheer of victory and fell back onto the stools that surrounded the island they’d been working at.

“That was amazing!” Sasha insisted. “ _We_  are amazing!”

“We’re _really_  good at this!” His eyes widened. “We could be like the Winchesters!”

“Oh my God!” Sasha slammed her hands on the counter again. “We _could_  be like the Winchesters!”

“We could start up a business!”

“A _Supernatural_  business!” Sasha agreed eagerly, nodding quickly.

Connie began trying to hash out some of the details, opening a word document so they could get their ideas down, and pointedly ignored the way Mike rolled his eyes, shook his head, and disappeared from the general vicinity of their excited chatter.

Connie didn’t care if Mike didn’t believe they could do this. Connie believed, and Sasha believed. That was all that mattered.

Besides, they’d just found Eren. How awesome was _that_?

* * *

Mikasa was going to murder Connie for sucking at using maps. Yes, he’d gotten the right location, but supplying the right _address_  would’ve been _tons_  better! Especially when using her phone was proving to be shotty, at best, with the stupid mountains in the area.

Thankfully the internet had not let her down and she was able to look up the address of the old plants and manufacturing buildings that had shut down in Sina a few years back. Connie at least had given them the warehouse number that Bertholdt’s family had bought, so it was just a matter of finding it, now.

They parked the car near the outskirts of the area, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. When they stepped out of the car, both Levi and Hanji stiffened. Mikasa had no idea what they were smelling, but she could feel the air around them charge. She felt anxiousness and fear rising, as well as anger. She wanted to get the fuck out of here and find Eren, Armin and Jean. And Erwin, though she didn’t know him very well, but he also deserved to be rescued.

“What is it?” Mikasa asked when the other two shared a look.

“Eren,” Levi said. “And Erwin.”

“And a hell of a lot of wolfsbane,” Hanji added.

“Are you both going to pass out?” Mikasa asked, remembering how Hanji had been near Annie’s car.

“No, it’s not potent enough and it’s not in our face. It’s more just the smell of its presence nearby rather than it travelling through the air. We’re not really inhaling it right now.”

“Maybe you should...” Mikasa pulled her shirt up over her nose and mouth, staring at Levi.

He shook his head. “That won’t do anything. You ever try to do that when someone farts? It doesn’t keep a fart out, it won’t help against wolfsbane.”

“Then what do we do?” Mikasa asked.

“As long as it doesn’t get blown in our faces, or we don’t get too close to it to inhale it, we’ll be fine. Just be careful.”

Levi started walking. Hanji seemed to hesitate for a moment before following. Mikasa took up the rear, looking around. The area was dark and deserted, but the occasional street lamp and the moon made it easier for her to see. It was better than the woods, anyway, where the trees had blocked out any and all natural light.

She clenched her hands together, wishing she had some kind of weapon with her. She might have two Werewolves, but they had basically just admitted they were screwed if someone happened to appear beside them with wolfsbane. She hadn’t even known that was a thing until Levi had almost died because of it.

When they got closer to open areas between the buildings, Levi forced them to wait while he tried to map out the safest route to the warehouse they needed to get to. They were hoping their numbering system had some semblance of order, otherwise they would be looking for Eren and the others all night.

Mikasa checked the time while Levi made sure the coast was clear. Quarter after eleven. If Annie was really sticking to the midnight ritual, they were dangerously low on time. And if they found the warehouse and it was empty... If Connie was wrong...

She had to force herself to stop thinking. If she didn’t stop thinking, she was going to have a breakdown. She couldn’t lose her friends, her family. Armin, Eren and even Jean, they were the most important people in the world to her. They had always made her feel included, always cared about her, always ensured she was okay.

When Levi had shown up, they’d supported her research to determine if he was related to her. None of them had called her crazy or weird. They’d all supported her, and made sure she was okay, and that she didn’t have a breakdown over it.

She wasn’t going to let any of them get hurt. She was going to protect them and save them and Annie was going to _pay_.

“This way,” Levi said quietly, hurrying out into the open. He stuck to the shadows, Mikasa and Hanji following close behind.

Mikasa’s eyes kept glancing over at all the warehouse numbers, written in large block letters on a piece of wood hanging off the side of every one of them. She ended up running into Hanji when the other stopped abruptly and found Levi crouched near the edge of the building they were beside.

“There,” he said, those five letters more of a growl than a word.

Mikasa looked past him at the next building and sure enough, it was the one they were looking for. There were windows along one side, and while most of them appeared dark, there was one that showed the faintest bit of light, as if someone had a flashlight and was waving it around.

It took all she had not to bolt for the door. The way Hanji was tensed and Levi’s muscles twitched, it looked like that was the case for them, as well.

“Follow my lead,” Levi ordered. Mikasa would’ve argued if they weren’t in such a hurry, so she just clenched her jaw and followed along behind them when the other two began to move. They were silent across the open area, moving quickly and keeping to the shadows as much as possible. They reached the building and Levi crouched beside a large bay door. He looked like he was thinking of testing it, but that would make a lot of noise and announce their arrival.

Hanji motioned past him and he turned, seeing a regular entrance on the other side of the bay door. They moved quickly to it, Levi stopping on one side of it, opposite Hanji and Mikasa. He tested the knob and it turned easily, the door opening without a sound.

Mikasa couldn’t help but feel like this was too easy.

Levi cocked his head slightly and Mikasa noticed Hanji doing the same.

“What do you hear?” she asked as quietly as she could.

“A muffled voice,” Levi replied with a frown. “Can’t tell who it is or what they’re saying.”

He pulled out his phone and the way his face hardened, Mikasa knew he’d just checked the time. Which they were out of. They had to move now.

“Stay behind me,” he ordered to the other two. “If anything bad happens, run.”

“I’m not leaving without you,” Hanji said darkly.

“I’m not leaving without Eren,” Mikasa added.

Levi looked like he wanted to slap them both but he said nothing, just scowled at them and then entered the warehouse. Hanji motioned for Mikasa to go next, presumably so that there was a Werewolf on either side of her. She obeyed, following behind Levi. It was darker in the building, so Hanji had one hand on her shoulder, steering her while she squinted through the darkness to keep sight of Levi.

There was another door up ahead with light flashing beneath it. Levi turned to her and a low growl left him. Even in the darkness she could see that his face was... misshapen. His features had shifted, eyes glowing brighter and teeth lengthening. His fingers seemed to lengthened and darken when claws grew, and his general posture was different, almost crouched, animalistic. She supposed being in full wolf form would take too long, and be loud, so he was opting for this.

Mikasa once again wished she had a weapon.

Levi’s hand closed around the doorknob and he froze, listening hard. Mikasa could hear it now, too. The muffled speaking. It was like someone was trying to say something around a gag.

Either Levi didn’t think of that, or he didn’t let it bother him, because he turned to the other two, nodded once, then threw open the door.

Mikasa raced in after him, Hanji right behind her, but she’d only gotten two steps in when her eyes found Armin, who was kicking his legs and trying to rub his face against one of his arms, both of which were above his head, suspending him from the ceiling.

When the door opened and he managed to turn to them, he’d gotten just one corner of his mouth free of the tape over it. His eyes were wide and panicked, and he managed to get one word out.

“Run!”

Mikasa coughed when powder hit her in the face. It burned her throat and for a second, she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She thought she was going to suffocate on it, but as quickly as the feeling had come, it passed, and she quickly waved the powder away, rounding on whoever had thrown it. Bertholdt was standing a foot away from her with a small bowl in his hands. She raced at him and was about to jump right on him so she could beat his face in when Reiner appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her around the middle from behind. He clamped his hands around her wrists, forced her to cross them over her own chest, and tightened his grip on her, leaving her trapped.

Rounding angrily on the Werewolves for their lack of action, she felt her blood run cold when she found them both on the ground. Levi was on his hands and knees, fingers clawing at the ground and awful, painful-sounding gasping noises escaping him. Hanji was flat on their stomach, looking like they were attempting to turn and crawl to the door.

Wolfsbane. They’d known it was there, but they’d all assumed no one knew they were coming. It made sense now why Hanji and Levi hadn’t heard anything from inside the room. Reiner and Bertholdt had known they were coming and had remained motionless waiting for them, holding wolfsbane, poised to incapacitate them.

Evidently they hadn’t considered a human would be with them, because Bertholdt was staring at her like he had no idea what he should do.

“Get the chains Jaeger was in. Hurry!” Reiner barked.

It got Bertholdt moving and he quickly turned to flip on a light, giving Mikasa a view of the large room they were in. It looked exactly how an empty warehouse should look, except for the wall of cages on one side. They stretched all along the floor from one end of the warehouse to the other, each its own little individual cage. One of them was occupied by someone who wasn’t moving.

Erwin.

She struggled against Reiner, lifting her legs off the ground and trying to dislodge his hold, but he was much, _much_  stronger than her and he held on tightly. He didn’t even look down at the Werewolves, completely positive he had neutralized them.

Mikasa had to agree that they looked pretty neutralized. Hanji looked alarmingly close to asphyxiating and Levi’s face was turning red, as if he were trying to fight off something his body insisted he couldn’t fight.

Bertholdt was back in an instant and Mikasa tried to kick at him. That earned the back of her knees being hit and she was forced to the ground, crying out when she hit it hard. Bertholdt crouched in front of her while he and Reiner worked to get the cuffs around her wrists. Once they were secured, Reiner stood and lifted her off the ground. Bertholdt avoided her kicking legs while they walked her quickly to the wall where a ring was imbedded in the cement. She flailed hard to get them to let her go, and ended up kicking Jean in the head and Armin a few times in the chest area while they passed them.

She hadn’t even noticed Jean was there, he’d been almost completely hidden behind Armin, on his knees with his arms above his head and a coat of blood caking one side of his face. The kick to the head had him groaning and stirring, but if he woke, she was too busy trying to free herself to notice.

Bertholdt got the chain through the loop and then he and Reiner backed off quickly, Mikasa trying to jump at them but being forced to a stop by the chains.

“You assholes!” she shouted, tugging hard enough for the restraints to dig into her wrists, blood welling. “What are you doing?! Where’s Eren?!”

Neither of them answered, turning to deal with the Werewolves. The first thing they did was yank both of their shirts off. It would’ve been weird, except Mikasa figured it was so that any contact with the cage door would have them reeling backwards in pain. They tugged off Hanji’s pants and were trying to do the same to Levi, but apparently they were too agitated because it was taking them too long so Reiner barked for Bertholdt to just leave him as he was.

Once that was done, Bertholdt picked up Hanji, struggling slightly under their weight, and half-carried, half-dragged them across the room to the cage beside Erwin’s. Kicking open the door, he threw them into it and then latched it quickly, turning to watch Reiner heading over with Levi under his arm like a sack of potatoes. Mikasa could see one of Levi’s hands rise to dig claws into Reiner’s arm, but the blond just grunted in pain and threw Levi rather violently into his own individual cage before slamming the door shut.

Levi crawled to the front of it, grabbed one of the bars, and cried out before releasing it, his hand burned.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Reiner insisted. “You won’t get out. Blondie’s been trying for weeks.” He nodded towards Erwin. “Just stay put and be good, and nobody gets hurt.”

“Like Jean didn’t get hurt?” Armin asked angrily.

Mikasa was surprised by the venom in his voice, but evidently he’d been present when Jean had been injured. He actually looked to be stirring, groaning and opening his eyes slowly, blinking them a few times as if trying to clear his vision.

“Jean’s a mouthy little shit,” Reiner said, moving away from the cages and back across to the three humans. “Why do any of you care what happens to the wolves, anyway? They’re monsters. They hunt and kill for sport.”

“Not all Werewolves are like that,” Armin insisted. “What have Werewolves ever done to you, anyway? Why are you doing this? Going along with this? Annie tried to kill Levi! Erwin looks dead! Is this really what you want? To go to jail for murder?”

“He’s not dead.” Reiner smiled wickedly, glancing over his shoulder. “Yet.”

“Where’s Eren?” Mikasa demanded, hands tightening into fists. He was just barely out of her reach, and that killed her. She wanted him to move even one step closer so she could throttle him. “What did you do with him?!”

“Relax, he’s with Annie.” Reiner crossed his arms, muscles bulging, as if trying to intimidate her.

If Werewolves didn’t intimidate her, Reiner sure as hell wouldn’t.

“What is she going to do to him?” Mikasa asked dangerously. “Steal his powers?”

Reiner seemed surprised, like the words had caught him off-guard. It was as if he hadn’t realized how much they’d learned, how much they had found out by themselves. He recovered quickly, face returning to its smarmy smirk and he crouched in front of Mikasa.

“Don’t worry, Mikasa. When this is all over, you won’t remember any of it. Annie’s going to make sure of that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am now 100% convinced that Penguin_Koala hacked my computer back during chapter like... six. Because they basically guessed the entire plot at the beginning and it made me sad and therefore convinced that they hacked my computer and read the whole thing before I started posting it :P (But no seriously, how did you guess this entire thing right at the beginning dude? |D)


	22. Chapter Twenty-One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

Nile Dok was a very respected man. A very respected man who was good at his job. Some even said he went above and beyond to ensure he was good at his job.

When that forest fire had started out near Maria Avenue eight years ago? He’d been on top of getting people clear and having aid sent in from the neighbouring towns.

When there had been that string of burglaries two summers ago? He’d caught the thieving sons of bitches and returned them to their extremely angry parents after one night in the slammer.

The Jaeger boy went missing for a few hours? Nile got out of bed, called in some favours, and was at the Jaeger house talking to his parents and completely panicking sister.

Nile was a good person. He was a good cop.

_So why was this happening to him?!_

Everyone had said it! Everyone had said being a cop in Shiganshina would be easy. Barring that rather unfortunate event with the Ackermans well before his time as a police officer, nothing bad ever happened in this small town. Nothing.

So why were four young adults missing, along with a creepy author and two wannabe hackers? Nile was not cut out for this detective shit. The last thing he’d wanted to wake up to was Carla Jaeger screaming down the phone line that her son and daughter weren’t answering her calls. Normally, Nile liked Carla Jaeger. Today? Not so much.

There was nothing quite as sobering as having people go missing and realizing that he had no fucking idea what to do about it. It had been one thing with Kirschstein, that kid ran off all the time, though never for this long. And, yes, Nile would admit the author in the house up on Rose was still his prime suspect, what with the threatening voicemail and all, but truthfully? He’d felt like Kirschstein had probably gotten drunk and gone off to Vegas to bang some strippers. Kid wasn’t exactly the picture of maturity.

It was when the Arlert boy went missing that he started to feel the heat. Armin Arlert was a respectable young man. Very polite, very mature. For him to go missing, even Nile couldn’t brush that aside. Kirschstein could still potentially be off screwing hookers like a dickhead, but Arlert was legitimately missing.

No suspects, and no leads, except some loner author up in a huge house on Rose. And then in walked the Jaeger siblings—well, Jaeger/Ackerman siblings. In they came, with their stories and theories, insisting Annie Leonhart was behind everything.

Which was ridiculous, because Annie was a very well behaved, caring, and grown-up young lady. He didn’t know what kind of prank they were pulling, but he wasn’t going to fall for it.

The second Carla Jaeger called, Nile had asked a buddy in Stohess for a favour. They’d gone to Annie’s house. They’d spoken to Annie. They’d spoken to her father. Everything was perfectly normal. No signs of anything weird going on.

So now, hours later, with the sun long since having set on the horizon, and a small glass of whisky on the edge of his desk, Nile stared at the file he’d had open all day. The author was long gone, but Nile had put out an APB as far as Trost. If he reared his head, someone would find him.

And then came the kicker. Connie Springer and Sasha Braus. Apparently they had _also_  gone missing, except they answered when they were called, and made a big show of having a “bad connection” before hanging up. Nile was still working on having their numbers traced, but it wasn’t like they were at the height of the technological age at the precinct.

The coffee machine didn’t even work most of the time, let alone GPS tracking.

Tossing his reading glasses onto the desk and rubbing at his eyes, he let out a long sigh before glancing at the time. Just past eleven at night.

“This is ridiculous.” Nile threw his hands in the air, frustrated beyond belief. This was all some ruse for him to lose the next election. Someone was out to get him, and the little shits were all in on it. Arlert and Ackerman were likely off at some book club weekend festival or something, and would be back in a few days. As for the Jaeger boy, he was probably fine. Out in Vegas, being inappropriate with hookers and gambling away his life savings.

Jaeger was most likely hanging around with Kirschstein.

* * *

 

Eren’s head hurt. This was the second time in the same day that his head felt like he’d downed a bottle of tequila when he really shouldn’t have. It was different this time, though. More than a dull pounding, it was like a pressure in his skull. Like his brain was too big for it.

He struggled to move his hands so he could rub his eyes, force himself to be more awake, but they refused to listen to him. The more conscious he became, the more he tried to move them until it became clear to him that they were tied behind his back.

Eren also discovered why his head hurt when he finally opened his eyes, and why his ankles felt like they were on fire.

He was hanging upside down.

Large cuffs were clamped around his ankles, linked together with a chain disappearing up higher than he could look in his current position. His wrists were crossed and bound behind his back with what he was fairly sure was some kind of rope. It burned and dug into his skin the way rope would. He noticed the leather cuff around his wrist was gone, allowing the material to bite into his skin more easily.

When he looked up—or down, for people who were right-side up—he saw that he was hanging with his head just barely above the rim of a large copper, oval-shaped tub. It wasn’t big enough to hold an entire person lying down, but he could probably sit in it comfortably. It was about three feet in length, two feet wide and a foot tall, leaving him dangling a foot and a half above the ground.

This was also when he realized he was missing his shirt. That didn’t bode well.

He tried to twist around so he could see what was happening behind him, but the position made that difficult so he gave up and instead tried to see if he could reach the chains. He bent at the middle, trying to do _something_ , but the strain on his body was too much and he was forced to hang again, the jerkiness of the action of him falling making his ankles ache at the pressure.

“Hello?” he called cautiously, looking around as much as he could. He didn’t seem to be in the same room he’d been in earlier with Armin, Jean and Erwin. He hoped they were okay.

Shit, he hoped _he_  was okay. He didn’t really know how terrified he should be right now.

Struggling to get his wrists free, he grit his teeth and twisted his hands around, trying to get at least one of them loose from its bindings. He was still working away at that when a door behind him opened and he froze. He tried to twist again so he could see behind him, but all he caught was a glimpse of was a pair of upside down boots walking slowly towards him.

They were very familiar boots.

“Annie,” he said, feeling something sick settling in his stomach. He felt like up until this very moment, a part of him had still firmly believed she wasn’t involved in this. He still wanted to believe she was his friend, and that this was all a huge misunderstanding.

Seeing Erwin almost dead, Armin chained to the ceiling and Jean’s face half-bloodied made it clear this was all very real, and no misunderstanding. But even then, he hadn’t seen Annie once, so he’d still had that hope, that pesky little emotion that helped him believe that maybe she wasn’t involved.

When she moved in front of him and stood staring down at him emotionlessly, that pretty much cemented the belief that this was all her.

“Why?” Eren asked, not even sure _what_  he was asking her. Why was she doing this? Why had she hurt people? Why did she want Eren? Why did she want Levi dead? Why had their relationship changed to such a degree? Just... _why_?

“You ruined everything,” Annie said, her voice low and dark, “when you bound yourself to that _wolf_.”

Eren didn’t know what that meant, but he instinctively clenched his left hand, the one with the unknown mark on his wrist.

“Annie, this isn’t like you. Let me down. We can talk about this.”

“It’s too late for that,” she said, turning her back on him and moving towards a table he couldn’t quite see because of the rim of the tub beneath him. “I tried to stop it, you know. I tried to get you to bind with me, but you just ignored me. You walked away from me and chose that _thing_  instead.” He heard something metallic get picked up off another metal surface, and when Annie returned, she was holding a knife.

It looked ancient, with a carved hilt made of some kind of rough bark, and a wavy blade that looked much too sharp for something that old.

“Annie. Annie, we can talk about this,” Eren insisted, struggling against his bindings, eyes on the knife moving closer and closer. “Annie, think about what you’re doing, this is crazy!”

“Crazy?” she demanded, bending down slightly so they were almost eye to eye. “Like Werewolves being real? What about Casters? And Vampires? And Fairies? Is that crazy, too?” She scoffed and stood. “All I ever wanted was power. I’ve been honing my skills since I was seven, but it was never enough. I was never _strong_  enough. That’s when my dad told me the story.”

“Story, what story?” Eren asked, confused.

His stomach muscles tensed when he felt the cold blade press against it, but Annie didn’t break skin, she just stared for a moment, as it contemplating something.

“Tell me, Eren, what do you know about the Creightons and the Shackletons?”

“The what?” he asked, muscles still tense.

“See, my father told me many things about our history. The Creightons led a strong, independent Coven. One of the most powerful in the entire area, some thought the entire country. They had been the leading Coven of the area for centuries until the Shackletons had shown up. They wouldn’t stop showing off how much more powerful they were, how much more deserving they were of the title of most powerful.”

Eren let out a grunt when the blade dug into his skin. Annie’s hand moved slowly, pressing it hard so that it broke through. At first he thought she was just cutting him, but then he realized she was drawing something on his skin, carving it into his flesh. He breathed through the pain, it wasn’t too terrible, and he didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of hearing him cry out.

“There were skirmishes, but they always ended friendly enough. Nobody really got hurt. Not until the Creightons discovered something amazing about the Shackletons’ power.” She pulled the knife from his skin, moved it over slightly, and then dug in again. Eren let out another grunt through his teeth, still working to get his arms free. Annie was an expert knot tier, apparently.

“You see, a group from the Creighton Coven had cornered one of the heirs of the Shackleton Coven. I’m sure they hadn’t meant to kill him, it had just sort of happened. And after it had, the power of those individuals had grown exponentially. It was discovered that the Shackletons really _were_  the most powerful, and that everything about them helped enhance other people’s powers. It explained why they were so strong, of course if they’re always around each other and marrying each other, they’re just feeding off each other’s energy.”

She paused here in her story, but her hand continued to move, knife digging into a new patch of flesh and carving something out. Eren grit his teeth and started shifting his body, trying to force her to stop, but she just dug the nails of her free hand into his side to hold him still and continued her work.

“My dad told me about the binding, you know. He’d always known who your family was, because of your mother’s mark. Our history went into a lot of detail about the binding, you see. If a Shackleton descendant gives themselves completely to someone, the mark appears. My dad was thrilled when he found out we were friends, and he encouraged it. He wanted me to get closer to you, to become stronger, to have power. It didn’t matter that your family had no idea who we were, or even who _you_  were yourselves. Just being near you was doing wonders for my abilities.” She pulled the knife free and turned to walk away. Eren thought maybe she was done, but he saw her open a book and flip through a few pages before she returned, moving behind him and starting on his back.

“As we grew older, I thought it would only be a matter of time before we bound. I checked my wrist every day, knowing that if I gave myself to you completely, and you had even the smallest hint of feelings for me, the mark would appear. I waited for it, hoping it would come. But time continued to pass and nothing happened. I figured I could wait, be patient, give you time.”

Unable to help himself, Eren cried out when she dug the blade in harder than before, evidently angry despite her tone not wavering in the slightest.

“I was starting to think I would have to resort to drastic measures. I spoke about it with my dad, and he encouraged it. So the next time we went out together, I crashed your car.”

Eren jerked at that, eyes widening slightly. He had always insisted he didn’t remember anything about that day they’d been together and he’d almost killed them both. It was like he’d been driving one second, and the next the truck had been destroyed. All this time, he’d felt guilt over it, thinking he owed Annie everything in the world for what he’d done.

All this time, it had been her fault.

“When that happened, I thought for certain that it would work. And wouldn’t you know it, a few days later, a faint little mark showed up. I kept waiting for it to get darker, but it didn’t. I forced myself to be patient, I just stayed close to you, made myself a huge part of your life.” An angry exhale, followed by another sharp stab of the knife into his skin, carving out another symbol. “Then that _thing_  showed up. The day he appeared, my mark disappeared. Years of me staring at it hoping for it to get darker, and it just _vanished_. And to add insult to injury, less than a month after his arrival, _he_  had the mark, and it was darker than mine had _ever_  been. But that was fine. It was okay, because I still had time. I still had a chance to fix it. And then.”

The knife left his skin briefly, and he thought maybe it was over, but then he screamed when she stabbed the knife through his wrist, right over the mark he had there. He felt the point of the blade puncture his back, the blade clean through his skin. Blood began flowing freely from his wrist, the pain agonizing. It was hard to breathe upside down, each one coming as a gasp between shouts of agony.

“I can’t bind with someone already bound, Eren,” Annie snapped, her voice almost drowned out by Eren’s screaming when she began twisting the knife still inside his body. “And once you’re bound, you don’t _unbind_! Once a Shackleton is bound, they’re bound for life! It should’ve been with me! You were supposed to choose _me_ , Eren! Two Casters from opposing Covens, coming together to form a new one. It’s like a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.”

She pulled the knife free and Eren felt the blood flowing faster, travelling down his arm, across his shoulder, and dripping off it into the tub beneath him.

This was not good.

He could feel his heart pounding against his chest, his body reacting to the pain. That would only make things worse, it would only force the blood out faster. Eren was positive she’d severed an important blood vessel; with the way she’d been twisting the knife, it was impossible for her not to have, right? This was bad. This was extremely bad.

“I tried to do it the nice way, Eren,” Annie said, returning to carving symbols on his back. “I tried to bind with you, to be with you. Mutual sharing of power. But you bound with a monster instead, so you’ve left me only with the less pleasant option.” Her voice held a hint of mania when she continued. “Remember the story I told you? About the Creightons killing the Shackleton heir? Well turns out that if you bathe in the blood of a Shackleton, that’s one of the most effective ways to steal their power. To make it your own.”

Eren’s gaze shot to the basin he was hanging over, watching the small puddle of blood beginning to form at the bottom of it.

“It’s a little morbid for my taste, but because of the war, there are very detailed instructions on how to get the most out of a Shackleton. You carve power-enhancing symbols into their body.” She pressed down harder on the knife where she was carving another symbol into him, accentuating what she was saying. “If they’re bound, you cut the mark off their skin. I thought destroying it would work just as well. I’m not much of a skinning someone alive kinda person.” She shifted back, moving around him once more and returning to the book.

It was now becoming much harder to breathe, and he didn’t know if it was his imagination, or if his blood was really flowing out of him in torrents of blood. He’d seen enough movies to know that slitting someone’s wrist was bad, but he also knew that movies made it much more dramatic than real life. He didn’t feel like the basin had a lot of blood in it yet, but he really wasn’t feeling well. Hanging upside down probably wasn’t helping.

“There’s another one about a chanting circle,” Annie said from across the room, flipping a page, knife still held in her other hand. Drops of blood were sliding off the tip onto the floor. “I’m a little lacking in my Coven, I’ve only got Reiner and Bertholdt, and they’re busy playing babysitter, so I’m gonna have to skip that one.” She checked something on her phone, then turned back to him, her eyes flashing dangerously. “I guess we can move to the last step, then. It’s almost midnight, after all.”

That didn’t sound good.

“Annie. Annie, wait,” Eren insisted while she strode towards him, licking some of his blood off the blade. “Annie, this is insane! Annie, you’re not thinking straight!”

He cried out when she grabbed a fistful of his hair and wrenched his head back, pressing the blade against his neck. It was now impossible to breathe, let alone speak. He couldn’t say anything else to her to make her reconsider. To make her come to her senses.

He was going to die. Holy fucking shit, Annie was going to straight up murder him!

“I really did love you, you know,” she said. “I’ve wanted to marry you since the third grade, Eren Jaeger. It’s a shame you had to go and ruin that by binding with a wolf.”

Eren felt the blade press in deeper and he clenched his eyes shut.

He didn’t want the last thing he saw to be his own blood leaving his body.

* * *

He could feel Sasha’s eyes following him while he paced back and forth in front of the couch, narrowly missing the corner of the coffee table almost every single time he turned around to head back the way he’d come. He wouldn’t be surprised if he wore a groove into the floor with how much pacing he’d been doing.

“What time is it?” he asked Sasha, who checked her phone before whispering that it was almost quarter-to.

Connie was wringing his hands together, forcing himself to stay calm. The excitement over their amazing detective skills had quickly petered out the closer the minute hand ticked towards midnight. They should’ve heard back from the others by now, and to have nothing was—disconcerting.

“We weren’t wrong, right? It was there, right?” Connie went back to the map for what felt like the millionth time since they’d discovered the place Eren was likely being held. “I mean, it makes sense, right?”

“We weren’t wrong,” Sasha confirmed quietly, moving to stand beside him, hugging her middle. Connie figured she was probably hungry. When she got nervous or scared—or excited or bored—she usually got hungry. “What if something happened to them?”

“But they’re Werewolves,” Connie insisted, scowling down at the map. “It’s not like you can just knock them out.”

His eyes shifted to their silent guardian, who was sitting rigidly in one of the armchairs, seeming to become more and more tense by the second. Clearly, he was remembering what Levi had said before they’d all left for Trost. To find a new pack leader by morning.

Sasha’s phone began to ring and she pulled it from her pocket, wincing before answering the call. She rubbed at the mouthpiece with a piece of paper and only spoke every other word aloud before quickly hanging up. Connie knew that meant his phone would soon ring.

Everyone was worried about their loved ones given all the disappearances. He felt bad for making his mother worry, but right now, he really couldn’t help it. Shit was not falling into place like he’d thought, and he quickly pulled out his phone and dialled Mikasa again.

As if doing so would have a different effect this time over the past twenty.

It went straight to voicemail and he hung up, tapping the phone against his forehead and forcing himself to breathe.

“Maybe we should call someone,” Connie said, eying the time once he’d pulled the phone down.

Ten-to.

“Like?”

“Nile?” Connie shrugged. “I mean, he’s a cop. He can get there in a few minutes with the siren going. He has a gun. He can totally go and make sure everything’s okay. I mean, I know the Werewolves probably have it all under control, but Jean’s been missing for a while, he probably needs medical attention.” He looked down at his phone. “I think having an adult—a _real_  adult—involved might be a good idea.”

Before Sasha could even voice her opinion, Connie’s phone was wrenched from his hand and he looked up to lock gazes with Mike, who was staring back at him with a stony expression.

“What?!” Connie flailed his arms. “What else are we supposed to do?! If Annie kills Eren...” The words felt like glass in his mouth, and he couldn’t make himself finish the thought.

_Would_  Annie kill Eren? The text was pretty clear that there was a rivalry, but Annie and Eren had been friends for longer than Connie had even known either of them. If Annie was willing to _kill_  Eren—provided that was what she was truly going to do—then what was protecting the others from that same fate? What if Jean was dead? What if they’d arrived at the warehouses, and everyone was dead?

What if Annie had killed the three he’d just sent there and was waiting for midnight to finish the ritual with Eren? What if Connie had just fucking sent them to their deaths?!

“Connie? Connie!”

He barely heard Sasha, feeling panic rising in his chest, hands clutching at his head, eyes staring unseeingly at the floor. What if he’d literally just killed three more people because he’d been stupid enough to believe that Annie wouldn’t hurt them? After all, the lore was very clear on how little the Creightons valued the lives of the wolves. They’d unleashed a fucking _virus_  without caring who or what they took out in the area, Werewolves included, just to heighten their power! Holy shit, Connie’d sent them all to their deaths!

He felt pain in his tailbone and for a second he had no idea what was happening when a large hand grabbed him by the back of the head and pushed it down so fast his nose almost slammed into his knees.

Instead, it stopped short and he sat bent over on one of the barstools he didn’t remember taking a seat in, struggling to inhale and exhale at a normal rate.

He hadn’t even realized he was having a panic attack until Mike shoving him into a seat had sparked pain through his body and forced his mind to the present. He was still trying to gasp in lungfuls of air, but Mike let go of his head when it became clear he understood what he was doing. Namely: trying to breathe.

Connie had never had a panic attack before. It was a brand new experience for him, and he didn’t like it. His chest felt tight, dots danced in front of his eyes, his breathing was erratic and he couldn’t slow it no matter how hard he tried to. His palms were sweating, his mind was racing, and he wanted nothing more than to dive at Mike for his phone and call the cops.

Sasha was rubbing at his back once Mike moved away, and when Connie had calmed down enough to sit up, he found the older man back in his seat, glaring across the room at the wall, holding Connie’s phone tightly in one hand. From the looks of his grip, Connie wasn’t sure he’d be getting it back in one piece.

“He wouldn’t be able to help,” Sasha said quietly, forcing Connie to look at her. She pressed her lips together. “Nile, I mean. What does he know about this kind of stuff? Hell, what do _we_  know? If we send him there to help, who’s to say he won’t get killed in the crossfire? Maybe they’re all fighting. Caster versus Werewolf. Maybe they’re just getting around to their victory and they’ll call us any second.”

Connie’s eyes drifted back to his phone, hoping, _praying_ , for that to be true. He hated Mike right now for not letting him call for help, but Sasha was right. Not only would it cause more people to be in danger, but it hadn’t exactly escaped their notice that there seemed to be a hierarchy. He and Sasha had found out about this by snooping, and he was sure they would pay dearly for it. It wasn’t exactly easy to explain away Werewolves and Casters, especially to a police officer who was going to want an explanation.

“They’re gonna be okay,” Connie said, letting out a slow breath and straightening slightly in his seat. “They’re gonna be okay. This is fine. They’re just fighting—the non-death kind of fighting—and we’ll hear from them in no time.” He turned and forced a grin at Sasha, who smiled back as best she could.

“They’re gonna be okay,” she agreed.

“They’re gonna be okay,” he repeated. 

* * *

“You’re not going to get away with this!” Armin shouted from across the room.

He sounded very far away. _Very_  far. But that wasn’t right, because Levi could see him. He was right there, barely twenty feet away. He sounded like he was on the other side of the damn country.

Shaking his head, Levi struggled to get himself back under control. His vision swam in and out of focus, and his lungs burned with pain, but his healing had started to kick in.

Wolfsbane was only fatal in large doses. When the powder had come flying at him, Levi was positive he was going to die. He was positive this would be like the tea, and he would drop dead. When he didn’t, it became clear to him that the powder was a mix of wolfsbane and something else. Probably allspice, if he had to guess, given how quickly his healing had kicked in, and allspice was used by Casters for healing.

That was a huge concern to him, because it meant they wanted them alive. Wolfsbane was there to incapacitate them, but allspice was being used to ensure they didn’t die. Even now, while his lungs burned, he didn’t feel like he was on the verge of death.

And he should have. That amount of wolfsbane should have killed him and Hanji both. The fact that it hadn’t meant they were being kept alive for a reason, and with people like this, Casters, this did not bode well for any of the Werewolves.

“We’ll get away with it,” Reiner said in response to Armin’s outburst, not privy to the thoughts racing through Levi’s mind. He struggled to move, shifting his arm down his body and pulling his phone from his pocket. He didn’t have a signal—which he’d expected, or they’d have taken the phones from him and Hanji before they’d thrown them in there—but he wasn’t looking at that.

He was looking at the time.

Seven minutes.

Eren had seven minutes before whatever happened to him happened. Levi felt his instincts going crazy, battering against the cage of his mind, the wolf trying to get free. Levi would’ve happily let it out, if only he had the energy. If only it didn’t hurt just to _breathe_.

They hadn’t talked about it. None of them had said it aloud. None of them wanted to believe it.

Annie was going to kill Eren. Levi knew that without a shadow of a doubt. Annie was somewhere with Eren, and she was going to kill him. Eren was going to die tonight, and Levi was stuck in a silver cage with wolfsbane coating the inside of his lungs.

“What are you gonna do?” Jean demanded, voice slurred as if he’d suffered a terrible head injury. Levi’s hand clenched around the phone, breaking the case and cracking the screen before the image flickered and the phone went dark.

“You gonna kill us, huh? You gonna murder us all, is that it? We’re gonna tell _everyone_  what you did otherwise!”

“I don’t think so.” Reiner moved to stand in front of Jean, blocking him from view. A moment later, Bertholdt appeared in front of Levi, passing the cage slowly before turning and moving in the other direction. He’d been pacing in front of them since this had started. He didn’t seem concerned with them, which made sense since Erwin was almost dead, his heart beat so slow Levi was scared after every beat that the next one wouldn’t come, Hanji hadn’t moved since being thrown into the cage, and Levi was still lying pathetically on his stomach right in front of the bars, trying to will himself to move.

“You see, Jean, that’s the cool thing about magic,” Reiner said to him. “When this is all over, we’re going to wipe your memories. We’re going to replace them with new ones wherein blondie over there was behind all of this. He’ll probably be dead by the time we’ve finished everything, so he’ll be the perfect scapegoat. He did this, and now he’s dead, and the three of you will go home after a traumatic experience being locked up as his slaves.”

“And the wolves?” Mikasa asked darkly. “You’re just going to kill them?”

“Blondie’s a lost cause anyway. He’s the sacrifice.”

Levi felt his blood boil at that, eyes shifting to Erwin. His heart was still beating. He was still breathing. He had to get them out of this before Erwin died. Before any of them died.

But _how_?!

“As for Levi and the other one, well, there are a lot of Casters out there who’d pay good money for a Werewolf. It’s hard to catch them, you know. They travel in packs. Should make for some interesting experimentation. We’ve already got a buyer lined up because of blondie, but I’m sure they won’t care which one they get. A wolf’s a wolf, after all.”

“And Eren?” Levi asked, voice rough and pain sparking through him at the attempt to speak.

Reiner turned from across the room, locking eyes with him. Levi snarled, drawing his lips back from his teeth.

“You’ve been careful not to mention him. So tell me, what are you going to do with him? What did Annie want from him?”

Levi knew a part of him was asking just to reassure himself. Maybe he was wrong. Unlikely, but maybe, just _maybe_  he was wrong. Maybe Annie was just having sex with Eren somewhere in a back room.

Maybe there was a way for them to get free, to fight their way out, escape with Erwin. The humans would be fine, Reiner had said so himself. Maybe he could get out of there with Hanji and Erwin, and Eren would be fine.

Reiner moved a few steps closer, so that he was halfway across the room, staring at Levi dispassionately.

“What do you think is going to happen to Eren, Levi?” Reiner didn’t look happy about his own words, suggesting he wasn’t a fan of what was coming.

“Why?” Levi asked, struggling onto his hands and knees. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because he’s bound.” Reiner paused, then added, “Because of you.”

“Annie’s been trying to bind with him for years,” Bertholdt said, moving closer to Levi’s cage. “She almost had him, too. She got the mark, and was waiting for it to darken and for Eren to get his. That was all she ever wanted, to be bound with Eren. But then you showed up and Eren’s interests faltered. She tried to call him to her, make him come to her. There’s more power of influence between Casters if you force one to come to you and snap them awake. They’re very confused, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. The first person they see after an event like that is someone their subconscious tells them to trust.”

“Then why didn’t she just stand outside his house?” Levi snapped, managing to get onto his hands and knees, breathing hard. Each inhale was like a stabbing pain in his chest. “Why didn’t she make sure it was her Eren woke up to?”

“That’s not how it works. You can’t _go_  to the person you’re calling if you’re a Caster,” Bertholdt insisted. “ _They_  have to come to _you_. To what is considered your space. Annie kept calling him to her at her house, but every time she called to him, you stopped him.”

“Maybe she should’ve stopped calling,” Levi snapped. “She only made things worse for herself.”

“That’s what I said,” Reiner muttered. He hadn’t said it loud enough for anyone to hear, but he was a Werewolf, so he heard it clearly.

“So you didn’t talk her out of it?” Levi spat hatefully. “You just let her continue with it?”

“We changed tactics! We started trying it during the full moon nights,” Reiner argued. “We thought it would help.” He clenched his fists, taking another step towards him. “We were desperate, too! We wanted Eren to be okay, we wanted it to work! We should’ve thought of the block-out spell sooner. We should’ve used it earlier, so that when Annie called Eren, you and anyone else wouldn’t know what was happening.”

“That’s how you got Eren, isn’t it?” Hanji asked. They sounded a lot weaker than Levi felt, which meant they’d probably inhaled more wolfsbane than he had. “This last time, you used magic to stop anyone from knowing what was happening.”

“If we’d done it sooner, maybe Eren wouldn’t be bound.” Bertholdt’s fists clenched, and it was clear he was unhappy with this turn of events.

“So now you’re going to let Annie kill him?”

The words seemed to echo in the room, as if someone finally saying them aloud made them true, even though they’d been true all along.

“That’s the only way to steal his power,” Reiner said quietly. “Eren has to die, or we can’t get stronger. The world is different than it was a hundred years ago, Levi. Surely you understand that, being a Werewolf.”

“We don’t kill innocent people!” Levi snarled.

“You wolves kill people every day!” Reiner shouted.

“Not on purpose!” Levi argued.

A low, angry growl began to echo in the large warehouse. Reiner scoffed and took another step forward, locking eyes with Levi. The Werewolf was impressed he could do that without feeling the need to look away. Even Annie had looked away.

“You’re stuck in that cage, Levi. Annie is going to kill Eren, and once he’s dead, we’ll all be better for it. We’ll let the humans go, and you and your friends will no longer be our problem.”

The growling was getting louder, all the hairs on the back of Levi’s neck rising.

“Shut up,” Reiner snapped, moving closer. “Growling isn’t going to change anything, you’re still gonna be stuck in that cage!”

Bertholdt moved closer to Levi, bending down so they were almost at eye-level. He frowned. “It isn’t him.”

“What?” Reiner asked sharply.

The man in front of Levi slowly shifted his gaze along the cages. First to Erwin, then to Hanji. Then he looked back at Levi.

“It’s not any of them.”

“What do you mean it’s not them, who the fuck is it then?!” Reiner was right in front of Levi’s cage now and in that instant, Levi thought of something that he hadn’t thought about in months. He thought of something many people had speculated upon his arrival in Shiganshina. He thought of something he himself had begun to entertain, if only because it was something he had silently longed for his entire life.

Family.

A roar sounded from behind Reiner and Bertholdt and they both whipped around. Reiner was too far away from him, but Bertholdt had gotten just a _little_  too comfortable with the incapacitated Werewolves.

Levi threw himself at the cage door, screaming when silver burned at his skin, but he pushed one arm between the bars, grabbed the back of Bertholdt’s shirt, and wrenched him back hard against the bars. His head cracked against the silver loudly, the sound echoing slightly. Levi pulled backwards again, forcing it to slam into the bars a second time. He saw blood on the bars, staining the back of Bertholdt’s head, and he wanted to keep going. He wanted to smash this guy’s brains out.

But unlike them, Levi wasn’t a monster, so he let him go and Bertholdt fell heavily to the floor.

Moving away from the bars, Levi screamed when some skin came free, stuck to the silver, and fell onto his ass, pain screaming through him.

Only then did he look up.

Reiner was running across the room, presumably to where the wolfsbane was, but he didn’t make it there in time. Mikasa had already pulled the chains free from the wall and leapt onto his back. She was still mostly human, only pieces of the wolf peeking through. She had both legs wrapped around Reiner’s chest from behind and one arm wrapped around his neck. The other hand was coming down hard on his head, punching mercilessly at him until Reiner fell onto his face.

Mikasa rolled off him, shifting onto her hands and knees and breathing hard. A shout of rage and agony escaped her and her back shot up, bones cracking and muscles shifting beneath her skin.

“Holy shit.”

Levi’s eyes shot to Jean when he spoke, and sick fear spread through him. Armin and Jean were both right there, hanging from the ceiling, directly beside Mikasa. They were weak from days stuck in this warehouse with little food and water, and Mikasa was angry.

Very angry.

He knew with absolute certainty that hearing Eren was going to die was what had set her off. Extreme stress, he’d told Eren. Usually it was about the person themselves being in danger. For Mikasa, the thought of losing Eren seemed more than she could handle.

“Levi,” Hanji said nervously from the other side of Erwin’s cage.

“Wait,” Levi insisted, trying to keep himself calm. “Just wait.”

Either Mikasa would turn completely and kill the two easily accessible humans beside her, or...

_Or she’ll save Eren._

Levi had noticed more than just her looks and her name being the same as him. There were other things that jumped out at him about her. The night Erwin had trapped Eren in his truck, their mother had insisted that Mikasa had been panicking about him being in danger. When Eren had left the house one night, and Levi had been there to stop him, Mikasa had woken up and caught him without any hints as to why she was suddenly conscious. Even now, while they’d been searching for Eren, Levi had noticed that she was acting similarly to how he’d felt. She was his sister, so it was natural for her to be anxious, but there was a level of anxiety inside her that matched his own.

Mikasa was like him.

Mikasa was a descendent of Zegrath.

Mikasa was family.

And that meant that Mikasa was going to save Eren.

A loud hack left the wolf’s mouth when it finally turned completely, standing on unsteady legs and shaking its head. It moved slowly at first, removing itself from the chains and remnants of clothing that it had still been wearing as a human, and it turned to Armin and Jean.

Neither of them moved, staring at it wide-eyed.

The wolf growled, then turned to look at Levi, yellow eyes locked on him.

Levi stared back, watched it curl its upper lip back, growling loudly.

“Go,” Levi said, shifting closer to the bars but not touching them. “We made a promise to them. We made a promise that we would protect them forever, so go! Find him! _Go_!”

The wolf took one last look at Armin and Jean, then it turned and flew from the room, taking the door off with it.

The tension in the room disappeared as if someone had popped a bubble. Levi still felt panic and fear inside him, the wolf knowing Eren was about to die, but help was coming and if he could get out, he would follow.

Reaching through the bars, he winced when he burned himself but kept searching through Bertholdt’s pants for keys. He really hoped he was the one with the keys, because Reiner was too far for anyone to reach.

“I am not ashamed to admit that I just wet myself.”

“We know, Jean, we’re Werewolves,” Hanji muttered from two cages down. “Levi, Erwin doesn’t look good.”

“None of us look good,” Levi snapped, finding the keys and yanking them free. His arm ached from being pressed against the bars and he had to take a few breaths to stop himself from screaming in pain. The wounds in his chest were slowly bubbling and beginning to heal, but it would take hours for them to disappear completely.

He could feel Hanji’s eyes on him, watching him with concern. They knew he was worried about Eren. It was impossible not to know. But he had two injured Werewolves, and one injured human along with himself to worry about right now. There was nothing he could do for Eren, as much as he hated admitting that.

All his money was on Mikasa. If she didn’t save Eren, then nobody could, and after generations of success, the pack would have one horrible failure under their belt.

Levi hated breaking promises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I re-wrote this chapter literally at the last second... I hope it still reads okay :/ Sorry if it doesn't :(


	23. Chapter Twenty-Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a horrible day and Keyvvi's texts are probably the only reason it was marginally improved so here, have a chapter. 
> 
> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime  
> Pokémon (c) Satoshi Tajiriajiri

Eren didn’t know what was worse: knowing what was coming, or waiting for it. It felt like he’d been suspended for hours, arm steadily dripping blood, lungs struggling to function, with Annie’s hand in his hair and a knife at his throat.

She’d mentioned midnight, so she was presumably waiting for it. Eren didn’t know how close it was, but if it didn’t hit soon, he would be dead long before it arrived. He really couldn’t breathe, and his whole body ached. The blood in the basin seemed to be more than he remembered it being moments ago. Was he literally just hanging there bleeding to death? He could think of a better way to go.

Mauled by a Werewolf would’ve been preferable. Considering he had that to compare this to was a little depressing when he really thought about it, but he supposed his brain had stopped working properly.

Eren.exe has stopped responding.

Annie said something that he didn’t catch. It sounded suspiciously like another admission of love, and then the knife pressed more firmly against his neck.

And then the door exploded off its hinges. It was sad that Eren recognized that sound by now, but he’d heard it enough times to recognize what it sounded like when a Werewolf slammed into a door and blew it off its hinges.

Annie let out a shout and pulled away from Eren, the knife biting into his skin but not enough to be anything more than a scratch. Her hand left his hair, the knife clattering to the ground, and when he turned his head, he saw her hands up while she backed away, a small black wolf slamming incessantly against some kind of invisible shield.

It looked like Annie was really struggling to maintain control. The shimmering air around her kept flickering, and every slam against it from the wolf had it splintering, caving in on itself before Annie managed to right it again.

“Levi,” Eren said, voice rough and lungs beginning to close up. Shit, he was going to pass out soon if he didn’t get righted and stopped the bleeding in his arm. “Levi!” he tried again.

The wolf didn’t respond, it just kept slamming mercilessly against the shield around Annie, forcing her back further and further until she was almost at the wall.

When the wolf backed away to get another running start for the protective shield, Annie dropped it completely, muttered something Eren didn’t hear, and then lashed out one hand. He heard the wolf let out a sound suspiciously close to a bark, then it whined like it was in pain. Eren tried to turn to look at it, but all he saw was the wolf rubbing its muzzle against its side, as if Annie had done something to injure it.

He saw Annie reaching for a bowl on the table the knife had previously been on, and he was about to shout a warning to the wolf, but it seemed to know that something was happening even with its face buried because it suddenly shot forward once more. Annie barely had time to get the invisible shield back up, stumbling back a step until she was less than a foot away from the wall.

Her eyes glanced over at something on the table and she cursed.

“I don’t have _time_  for this!” she snapped, letting the shield drop once more and grabbing for the bowl. The wolf seemed to have caught on to what she was planning, and also seemed to catch that when it moved away, she let the shield drop since she needed both hands to keep it active.

It had moved away, yes, but even as Annie had begun to drop the invisible wall, it had already started back for her. Annie caught the beast coming out of the corner of her eye at the last second, raising the shield once more.

This time, it didn’t hold, and with one final hit, the shimmer of air seemed to shatter and Annie was thrown backwards into the wall, head cracking loudly against concrete before she slumped to the ground. The wolf looked ready to attack her again.

It looked ready to kill her.

“Stop!” Eren forced out, managing to make himself louder than he had previously.

The wolf froze and turned to him, flank heaving and yellow eyes locked on him. Eren stared for a second, not understanding, because it wasn’t a full moon so Levi’s eyes should’ve been blue. The only times eyes were yellow outside the full moon was when—

Eren’s blood ran cold and he stared at the wolf with no idea who this was. This wolf could’ve been anyone, running towards the scent of blood and a human it could maim. And Eren really didn’t have any way to defend himself right now, not while he was chained up and bleeding to death.

But then—it had stopped. He’d asked it to stop and it had, and was now right in front of him, staring at him with so much concern he felt like he could almost see the person under it. This wasn’t Levi, but it was someone else who was bound to protect descendants of the Shackletons. Someone else in his life who would protect him no matter what.

“Mikasa?”

The wolf began to pace, growling and staring up at Eren, and it became clear to him that it didn’t know what to do. It stopped in front of him, snapping its jaws, as if angry at him for not being more help.

In his defence, he was tied up and bleeding to death. There wasn’t really much he could do.

It paced for about thirty more seconds before it suddenly froze, eyes widening and back arching. A low, painful growl left it and then a whine before the sound of snapping bones echoed in the room. It let out another whine of pain and Eren closed his eyes, turning his head away, even though that simple action made the room spin. Which was talent, considering his eyes were closed so he wasn’t sure how he could tell the room was spinning. It was probably the same as that feeling like everything was moving when you were drunk and were lying down.

His brain thought of weird things when he was dying. He’d noticed that the last two times, too.

The change seemed to happen relatively quickly, and with only a few cries of pain. When those stopped and all he heard was panting, he opened his eyes and turned back to the body lying on the floor. Mikasa was curled up into a ball, naked and shivering. He couldn’t imagine how she was feeling. Probably in shock.

Most likely in shock.

Which he could appreciate, he could. He understood. But he was still bleeding and his vision was starting to dim around the edges. He didn’t know how long he’d been like this, but he really needed to stop the bloodflow before he straight up died.

“Mikasa.” Was he slurring? It sounded like he was slurring.

She looked up at him, seeming confused and shaken, but her eyes widened when she realized who he was. Then her eyes shifted to his shoulder, probably watching the blood on it before she leapt to her feet.

Eren immediately closed his eyes because that had definitely given him more of a view than he wanted of his sister, considering he was upside down and she’d just stood up.

He listened to her laboured breathing while her feet padded across the floor. There was a weird grinding sound and then he felt himself lowering slowly. He had to shift his head to the side of the rim so that he wouldn’t end up head-first in the basin of his own blood, but once it got to his shoulder, he didn’t have to try so hard and he was lowered slowly. Changing angles a little so that the back of his head rested against the floor first, Mikasa loosened her grip on the chains so the rest of him was lowered more quickly and then he was lying on his back on the floor. He hoped it was clean, or his injuries would get infected.

It was a weird thought to have, but there it was. He really _did_  have the weirdest thoughts while close to dying. He supposed it was a defence mechanism.

He saw Mikasa rush across the room out of the corner of his eye. After a few seconds, she was back and at his feet, keys jangling loudly. She tried to find the right one, but it was difficult for her because her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

Eren didn’t know if it was from fear, relief, or what had just happened. He didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing and let her work.

He remembered Levi telling him about how they didn’t remember anything when the wolf took over, and it occurred to him that she probably had no idea how she’d gone from the warehouse to where Eren was. She likely had a fair idea, but he was sure it was hard for her to focus on that given her brother was bleeding to death in front of her.

She finally got his legs free and then pulled him into a seated position. His body felt stiff and lethargic. He’d definitely lost too much blood, if he didn’t get help soon, he wasn’t very confident about his survival.

“Oh my God,” Mikasa said quietly when she started working on the bindings around his wrists. This she worked on faster and then she stood and looked around urgently when he was free. She raced across the room to what he realized was his shirt and sweater. She came back with the shirt, pressing it hard against the wound in his wrist and forcing Eren’s own free hand on top of hers.

He couldn’t move the fingers in his left hand, and that made panic shoot through him, heart rate increasing at the thought that he would never be able to use his hand again, but Mikasa’s own squeezed tightly, forcing him to pay attention to her when she spoke.

“Press down hard. I need to get you help.”

“You need clothes,” he said, voice still somewhat slurred. “My sweater.”

“Eren, you need help!”

“Are you gonna help me out of here naked?” he asked, trying for a smile but not sure he was managing it. “Get my sweater.”

She hadn’t seemed to realize she was naked, because she looked down and instantly turned scarlet, hastening across the room and grabbing Eren’s sweater. She pulled it on over her head, the item falling to about mid-thigh. It wasn’t enough for Eren, he didn’t want people seeing this much of her. He struggled to his feet, Mikasa helping him up. When she lifted her arms, it made the sweater ride up, so he struggled to undo his pants one-handed.

She yelled at him over it, but he ignored her and just pulled off his jeans, leaning against the wall while she put them on since he’d made it clear she wasn’t walking out of there without clothing on. Once she was dressed, she helped Eren out of the room he was in wearing only his boxers and socks with his shirt wrapped around his wrist. He looked around, trying to figure out where they were, but Mikasa paused and cocked her head.

“What?” he asked.

“Sirens,” she said. “The others must’ve gotten free and called for help.”

“Good. Is Jean okay?”

“I think so. Not sure about Erwin.”

Eren swallowed hard, having forgotten about Erwin yet again. He’d been missing the longest, and God only knew what Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt had done to him during that time.

Mikasa carefully picked their way through another broken door, the two of them being mindful of any splinters, glass, and other sharp objects since neither had shoes on.

The silence was deafening and Eren really couldn’t hold it in anymore. He needed to talk about it, and he felt like talking in general would keep him awake. Thankfully the shirt he was holding didn’t seem to be covered in blood yet, so he likely wasn’t bleeding out as quickly as he could’ve been.

“So. Werewolf, huh?”

She stiffened beneath him. “I guess so.”

“I’m sorry.”

She looked at him. “You’re _sorry_? Why are you sorry?”

“It’s my fault it came out.” He winced when he stepped on something, but it didn’t feel like it had broken skin so he didn’t mention it. “I didn’t mean it.”

“This isn’t your fault, Eren. Annie is insane, this is all on her.”

He couldn’t argue there.

“Told you I didn’t like her,” she muttered.

Eren let out a laugh, then winced, pressing his injured wrist tighter against his own chest. “You know this doesn’t change anything, right? You’re still my sister, and I still love you.”

“I know.” She was still tense.

“We don’t have to tell mom and dad.”

“Okay.”

“Mikasa,” he said, forcing her to pause briefly and look at him. “This doesn’t change anything.”

“I know,” she repeated, and some of the tenseness left her shoulders, as if she truly believed it this time.

“Good. Now hurry up, I’m bleeding to death over here,” he muttered.

They walked slowly through an abandoned building and outside. Eren’s eyes couldn’t focus properly, but he figured that made sense, considering. Mikasa was helping him stumble towards another warehouse across the lot and even from there he could see the blown off door.

“You’ve been taking lessons from Levi,” he said, trying for teasing, but it was hard to sound teasing while slurring. She ignored him and helped him through the door.

He looked up to see the damage that had occurred while he’d been elsewhere. Armin and Hanji were bent over Erwin in the middle of the room, presumably checking him over, and Levi was struggling to help Jean sit against a wall. There were deep burns along his torso and arms, perfectly mimicking where bars would’ve been. The two conscious Werewolves seemed to be moving more slowly than normal, as if something was wrong with them.

As if sensing him—or possibly smelling him, or hearing him, it was hard to tell with Levi—the wolf turned and was on his feet instantly, practically dropping Jean against the wall. He seemed to be trying to race across the room, but was moving much slower than usual, suggesting something was wrong with him that he was pushing through so he could get across the open area to Eren. When he did, he grabbed his face in his hands, wrenched his head down, and kissed him.

This was a different kiss than any of the others they’d shared. This one was almost desperate, like Levi had to be sure that he was real, that this wasn’t a hallucination. His hands were going crazy, dragging across his cheeks, down his neck, along his throat, up into his hair. It was like he couldn’t touch him enough in that moment.

When they broke apart, Levi moved his hands back up to Eren’s face, pressing his forehead against the other’s.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “There’s a lot of blood, but I don’t...” He scowled, as if not even knowing what to say.

“I’ll be okay. How’s Erwin?”

“Bad,” Armin answered from across the room, his breathing sharp and fast, like he was panicking but trying to push through it. “Really bad. If the ambulance doesn’t get here soon...”

“How did you get a signal?” Mikasa asked, moving to help Eren sit down as well. He was thankful, even though he tried to lean back and instantly felt pain. He’d forgotten about the carvings on his back. His wrist kind of had his complete attention.

“Whatever they’d been doing to stop the signal broke when we knocked them both out,” Levi said, motioning Bertholdt and Reiner. They’d been moved into a corner, but neither were tied up. They were lucky to even be alive, from the looks of it. “I used Reiner’s phone to call the cops and an ambulance. Then I helped everyone else out. It was slow-going because of the wolfsbane, but being outside the cage is helping. I think there was more in the cells because Hanji and I felt much better the second we were out.” He hesitated, eyes on Mikasa. “Is Annie...?”

“Alive,” Mikasa said. She tried to make like it wasn’t a big deal, but Eren could tell she was relieved Annie was okay. Mostly.

“We should go get her. Can you show me?” Levi asked.

Mikasa hesitated, eyeing Eren, but then seemed to realize Levi wanted to talk to her so she nodded and the two of them walked out. Eren watched them go until a groan beside him had him turning his head, Jean sitting down beside him. It looked like he’d been slowly making his way across the room while Eren hadn’t been looking.

“You okay?” he asked him.

“I’ll live,” Jean tried for a grin, almost managing it. His voice sounded as slurred as Eren’s, so he was obviously badly injured. His eyes, which seemed relatively out of focus, lowered to Eren’s wrist. “Are you?”

“If help comes soon. Starting to feel dizzy and my vision’s not doing so great.” He stared down at the shirt around his wrist. It still wasn’t soaked through with blood. That was a good sign. He tried moving his fingers, but forced himself to stop when it didn’t work and he felt panic threatening once more. He didn’t need his heart pumping blood more quickly right now. “Movies lie, I was sure I’d bleed out.”

“Nah, it takes a long time to bleed out depending on how you get cut. If she didn’t cut upwards, you have a lot more time.”

Eren gave him a weird look and Jean shrugged.

“Internet.”

“You look up weird things.”

“I like being prepared.”

Eren said nothing to this, turning to look at Erwin for a moment. He couldn’t help but notice that Jean smelled weird. He wasn’t a Werewolf, so he didn’t know _why_  Jean smelled weird, but it wasn’t until he turned back to him and noticed his crotch area was wet that he clued in to what the smell was.

“Dude,” he said slowly, still slurring, “did you piss your pants?”

Jean managed to look injured and offended at the same time. “Your sister turned into a werewolf a literal foot away from me. _Yes_  I fucking pissed my pants!”

Remembering how terrified he’d been trapped in the truck while Erwin was beating on the side, he felt like he could appreciate Jean’s fear having someone turn into a Werewolf right beside them. His eyes caught sight of Mikasa’s shredded clothing and the chains she’d obviously been in. They were remarkably close to where more manacles hung from the ceiling.

Jean and Armin were lucky to be alive.

They both sat in silence after that, watching Hanji worriedly checking over Erwin. Mikasa and Levi reappeared moments later, the latter carrying Annie. He seemed to be doing much better after having gotten some fresh air into his lungs.

He brought Annie to the corner where Reiner and Bertholdt were and quite literally dropped her on top of them. Honestly, Eren was surprised he hadn’t just dropped her on the floor. He figured Levi was trying not to kill anyone, tempting as he was sure it was.

“We need to get our stories straight,” Levi said, moving closer and cocking his head. Mikasa had moved to her shredded clothing and started picking the pieces up, looking around like she wanted to throw them out or hide them. “Police are about a minute away. What are we going to say?”

“I vote for, Annie be cray, she thought she was a Witch and wanted to murder Eren to steal his life force and everyone who found out the crazy bitch’s plan went missing and almost died,” Jean said, head leaned back and eyes closed. Eren nudged him, forcing him to open his eyes once more. The last thing he needed was for Jean to _actually_  die.

“So, the truth then?” Levi asked.

“A version of it. Why not?” Jean raised one arm in fake cheer then winced and lowered it. “My arms hurt.”

“Obviously, you were suspended from the ceiling,” Eren said bumping him lightly with his knee.

“You’re all taking this surprisingly well, considering you almost died,” Hanji commented, though they were eying Armin who was sitting beside Erwin and breathing in and out quickly, clearly on the verge of a panic attack. “I mean, this is par for the course for Levi and I, but you’re... you know.”

Jean thumbed at Eren and said, “Shock.” He motioned himself next. “Head injury.” Then he pointed at Armin. “Panicking.” He pointed at Mikasa, who was moving back from across the room, the clothes now gone from her hands. “Werewolf. Don’t worry, we’re all gonna have our own personal panic attacks soon, I’m sure.”

“Shut up, Jean,” Mikasa snapped, bending down beside Armin and rubbing his back while he put his head between his bent knees and struggled to breathe.

“Ah, insults from Mikasa,” Jean sighed, closing his eyes. “At least I know I’m not dead.”

Eren nudged him to force his eyes back open again. If Jean had a concussion, he didn’t want him passing out and never waking up. Jean’s out of focus gaze shifted to him and he tried for a smile before looking at the door. The sirens were audible to even the humans, now.

Frowning, Jean looked at Hanji. “Hey, you might wanna get dressed,” he slurred, eyebrows rising suggestively. “Or, you know, at least put on some pants.”

“Great,” Eren said with a sigh. “I’m going to be the only person mostly naked when the cops get here. It’s like high school all over again.”

“You were naked in high school?” Hanji asked while pulling on their jeans.

“I missed out,” Levi muttered.

Eren didn’t feel the need to mention he was referring to nightmares of being onstage in his underwear. It was hard enough staying conscious without having to explain the workings of his fucked-up mind.

He just hoped none of them died in the space of time it took the medics to get in here.

* * *

To say everything had been a panicked mess once the police had arrived would be an understatement. Once Eren was actually being treated, the full weight of what had happened finally hit him and he ended up having a panic attack. Apparently having a panic attack while suffering from blood loss was a bad idea because they ended up sedating him and he passed out. He woke up in the hospital with an IV in one arm and heavy bandages on the other. His mother was sleeping in a chair in the corner of the room and he could hear his father outside the ajar door chatting with someone.

Jean was in the bed beside him sleeping, and it gave Eren a clue of who was outside talking with his dad. He shifted slightly in the bed, trying to reach out for the water on the bedside table when he jumped, someone moving out of the shadows to get it for him.

“You’re creepy, you know that, right?”

“Careful or I’ll dump the water on your head,” Mikasa said, sitting on the edge of the bed. She offered him the cup, and he tried to move his left hand to grab it, but his fingers wouldn’t respond properly. Trying to squash the panic, he instead reached out with his right hand, taking the offered cup and sipped it slowly. His eyes shifted to his mother, still sleeping in the corner.

“Is everyone okay?” Eren asked quietly, almost afraid of the answer.

“More or less,” Mikasa said, eyes also on their mother. “Erwin’s in bad shape. They air-lifted him to Trost, but Hanji’s been texting daily and they say he’s going to make it.”

“Daily?” Eren frowned. “How long was I out?”

“Three days.” There was a tightness around her mouth when she said it but she still didn’t look at him. “They said you were okay, but the trauma was a bit much and you kept thrashing in your sleep, so they kept you knocked out.”

“Oh.” To be fair, he’d almost died. “And Jean?”

“He’s just napping. He’s got a concussion so he gets woken up every hour, and is suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. They want to keep him for a few more days to make sure he’s okay. Armin was released yesterday. He wanted to come, but his grandfather’s pretty upset so he’s trying to stick around at home.”

Eren nodded, waiting, but Mikasa said nothing else. He knew she was waiting for him to ask, so he just bit the bullet.

“And Levi?”

She pulled an envelope from her pocket and the sight of it made his heart clench. She still wasn’t looking at him, but he felt like she’s just rolled her eyes, as if knowing what expression he wore despite not even looking at him.

“Relax, he’s coming back. He left to be with Erwin. He knew you’d have people with you, but Erwin’s only got his pack. Levi wanted to be there.”

Eren took the letter, feeling sad but also understanding. Mikasa was right, Erwin was virtually alone except for the members of his pack. They were like his family, and Levi was one of them.

“He looked really conflicted when he left. Try not to be too hard on him.”

“No, I get it.” Eren nodded, still upset but he truly did understand. “He’s got people he cares about, too. I know I’m one of them, but he knew I would be okay. Erwin’s more...” Eren clenched his fists, crumpling the letter unintentionally. “People almost died.”

“ _You_  almost died. That crazy bitch is crazy.”

Eren realized he hadn’t asked about Annie or the other two. They were probably okay, and he actually felt like he wanted to know that they were, but that made him feel... weird. He shouldn’t want to know that the people who’d tried to kill him and his friends were okay. They deserved to _not_  be okay.

“Is Levi okay?” Eren asked instead. “He was hurt pretty badly.”

“It healed. He’s fine. He actually had to make sure no one noticed he was injured. It’s hard to explain away burns healing like they were never there.”

Eren nodded. “What about the other three? What happened to them?”

He wasn’t asking if they were okay, he was asking what happened. He wanted to know if... shit, he had no idea. He didn’t even know what he wanted to say.

Mikasa was silent for a few seconds, as if trying to decide what to tell him. Eventually she advised him that people would likely come to ask him for his statement now that he was awake. The others were in the same hospital, suffering from minor injuries—except for Reiner, apparently, which Mikasa looked ashamed of but didn’t explain, only saying he was in worse shape. They were only receiving care until they were fit enough to be incarcerated, after which they would stand trial. It was likely they would plead insanity, given what everyone had been telling the police about why Annie had done this, but it would still mean they would be locked up somewhere far, _far_  away.

“Mr. Leonhart came by earlier,” Mikasa said, eyes on her hand, which was resting on top of Eren’s fingers lightly. “Wanted to talk to Jean and I. Dad told him to leave before he killed him.”

“What did he want?”

“To apologize, I think.” She shrugged. “He seemed pretty upset with everything that happened.”

Eren just nodded and they sat there in silence for a few minutes. His father came back in after that and upon seeing he was awake, immediately began to fuss. That woke his mother up, and all hell broke lose.

Jean had woken up in the middle of it all, but his own parents helped him out of bed and he went for a walk while Grisha and Carla fussed over their son, Mikasa taking a seat in the vacated chair and staring out the window.

There was a lot of crying, mostly from his mother, but he was really glad that everyone seemed to have gotten out of this relatively unscathed. His father was very cautious in how he explained to Eren that many of the injuries he’d had would scar, but Eren didn’t really care. He could handle a few scars if it meant he wasn’t dead.

That was around the time where his mother slapped him upside the head and asked him when he’d gotten a tattoo. He’d been confused for about two seconds before remembering what was on his wrist. It was hard to explain away, especially when she asked why he’d gotten the same one as her, but something in the way she looked at him made him feel like she knew perfectly well that he hadn’t gotten a tattoo. He wondered if she was waiting for him to tell her the truth, about how it had just appeared on his skin, but he didn’t think he was ready for that conversation yet so he just made up a bullshit story that Mikasa backed up and they dropped the subject.

The police came in a little while after that, Nile looking ashamed when he began asking questions about what had happened. Mikasa whispered that he’d gotten the rails already when she’d been questioned since she’d mentioned the fact that they thought it was Annie back when Jean was missing.

In front of Jean’s parents.

Nile would have a lot of ass kissing to do to keep his job, but for the moment people weren’t focussing on that. They just wanted this to be put behind them, which was easier said than done considering there was still the trial. That wasn’t for a while yet, as far as Eren understood, so he didn’t let it bother him. He just gave his statement as best he could, answered their questions, and then watched them leave.

Jean was still gone, and Grisha coaxed Mikasa out of the room, saying she should head home for a shower and some sleep since she hadn’t left Eren’s side for the three days he’d been in there. Which, really, Eren should’ve guessed because she was still wearing his jeans and sweater. He was surprised it had taken them this long to force her to leave, but then again, he figured it made sense since she probably wouldn’t have left until he woke up no matter what.

After assuring her that he was fine and he’d see her tomorrow, Mikasa and Grisha left the room, leaving him alone with his mother. She’d scooted the chair closer to the bed and was gripping his left hand tightly with both of hers. He could feel the tightness of her grip, which was a relief, because it meant he hadn’t lost feeling in his hand. He just couldn’t move his fingers. He’d have to talk to his dad about that later.

It took a few seconds of silence for Eren to realize his mother was crying again. She had her head bowed and her hands trembled against his, grip tightening and loosening sporadically.

“Mom?” he asked uncertainly. She just shook her head and kept her face averted, shoulders shaking while she cried. “Mom, I’m okay,” he promised, shifting so he could put his right hand on top of hers. The movement made some of the stitches on his back stretch, and made them itchier than ever, but he forced himself to ignore it. “Mom, I promise, I’m okay.”

“You’re not okay!”

Eren jumped, startled at the outburst. When she looked up at him, she looked furious but devastated. It was a terrible expression to see on his mother’s face.

“Eren, what _happened_?! The past few months, you’ve been secretive and scared and just—you won’t _talk_  to me anymore! You barely spoke to Mikasa until recently, and now all of this, with the tattoo, and with Annie and Levi—what _happened_? _Please_. Why did you stop talking to me? I keep going over everything in my head, over and over, trying to figure out where I went wrong, when you stopped trusting me. Maybe I could’ve stopped all this, maybe I could’ve...”

Whatever she said after that, Eren didn’t understand, because she had dissolved into tears again.

Guilt ate at Eren’s insides, seeing his mother so upset. He hadn’t really taken the time to consider what his silence was doing to his family. He hadn’t considered that his parents might think this was their fault, that they could’ve stopped it. He just didn’t know what to tell her. He couldn’t exactly admit the truth to her. Even though they were telling the police Annie was crazy and thought she was a Witch, it wasn’t like he could admit that Levi was a Werewolf, and this whole thing stemmed from a history that spanned centuries that he still didn’t fully know himself since he’d mostly heard it from Annie’s side while she’d been preparing to kill him. That kind of had his complete attention.

“Eren, don’t ever do this to me again. Do you understand? If something is wrong in your life, I need you to tell me, understand? I need you to admit what’s wrong so that we can help. We’re your _parents_ , it’s our job.”

“I know,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”

It took a few minutes for her to calm down, Eren gripped at her hands as tightly as she was gripping his. When she managed to pull herself together again, he hugged her tightly, ignoring how much it pulled and hurt at the stitches in his skin and the IV lead taped to the back of his hand.

He could tell she wanted to ask once more what had happened when he pulled back, but the door opened and Jean came in with his father. He was holding one of the metal poles that had an IV lead attached to it, evidently in bad enough shape that he needed to be hooked up to one 24/7. It made sense, Mikasa had said he was dehydrated.

“Doctor says we should let them rest,” Mr. Kirschstein said as Jean climbed back into his bed. “Might be a good idea for you to get some, too.” He offered Eren’s mother a smile. “Come on, Carla. I’ll drive you home. Eren will still be here in the morning.”

She didn’t look so sure about that, but after five minutes of all three of them convincing her she should go home and sleep, she finally acquiesced and kissed Eren’s temple before leaving the room. She stared at him intently up until the door shut, as if terrified he was going to disappear on her again.

Eren sighed, rubbing at his face with both hands. At least his left one worked enough to manage that.

“The media wants to talk to you,” Jean said from the bed next to him, causing Eren to turn and look at him. He hadn’t had the chance to really talk to Jean since waking up. Between all the people coming and going, he actually hadn’t even really seen much of him.

Staring at him now, guilt gnawed at his insides when he really took in how bad his friend looked. He was pale and a little thinner than he had been before he’d gone missing. One side of his head was shaved, stitches obviously present beneath the bandage wrapped around it. The hit he’d gotten had been fairly severe and in a way, Eren was glad he’d gone missing when he had or things might’ve been worse for Jean.

He was playing absently with one of the bandages around his wrists, and Eren realized they were probably also injured from the constant suspension. Overall, Jean looked okay psychologically. Eren figured he’d had three extra days to calm down enough to be fine. Or maybe Jean was always fine.

He’d taken the whole Werewolf thing pretty well, too. Not to say he hadn’t freaked out, but he’d taken it better than Eren had.

Realizing Jean was looking at him and waiting for a response, Eren snapped himself out of his guilt-muddled thoughts and replied.

“I’m going to avoid that as much as possible,” he muttered.

“Yeah.” Jean turned to look towards the door. It looked like everyone had finally left after days of being around, relieved Eren was awake and wanting him to get a bit more rest. Eren was glad Jean was sharing with him though, he didn’t want to be alone right now.

They both watched people walk back and forth in the corridor through the small, inset window, but nobody looked in. Eren was hooked up to a few things, so he figured they’d know if something was wrong, and Jean seemed fine enough to be allowed out of bed, not to mention they both had the nurse-call button. It was nice finally having a quiet moment with Jean.

His friend turned back to him then, forcing his attention away from the door. “Have you talked to Mikasa yet? About, you know...”

He shook his head, shifting his gaze to the note on the table beside his bed. He still hadn’t opened it. He hadn’t had the time.

“I will, when I can get some time alone with her.” He glanced back at Jean. “How is she?”

He shrugged. “She’s Mikasa. Armin asked her to come by now that you’re awake, figures she needs someone to talk to, but she said no. I think she wants to talk to you about it first.”

“Maybe.” He raked a hand through his hair, wincing when it pulled at the IV taped to the back of his hand. “I still can’t believe this happened. A part of me thinks I dreamt the past few months. Werewolves and Casters and rituals. It’s all too much.”

“Yeah,” Jean said with a snort. “Also Sasha and Connie are _actually_  hackers, and Connie speaks Sanskrit. Who knew?”

“Connie speaks Sanskrit?” Eren asked, his train of thought derailing at those words.

“Yeah, almost fluent!” Jean grinned and shifted on the bed so his legs were crossed over each other, gripping his ankles with both hands. Eren figured he was trying to distract him and, honestly, it was working. “He speaks Latin and Greek, too. Apparently he learned some Arabic a while back, but he says he’s forgotten most of it. We had to try and keep their involvement to a minimum because they hacked the city records, but we made it clear they helped. Mikasa says if it wasn’t for them, we’d probably all be dead.” He shrugged, like talking about all of them dying was something easily shrugged off.

“Huh.” Eren didn’t know what else to say, so he left it at that. They sat in silence for a few moments, Jean looking towards the door and Eren staring at the envelope. He picked it up, holding it in both hands for a moment before saying, “Hey Jean?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? You didn’t ask for this. Annie’s a crazy bitch.”

“I know, but—all of you disliked her. You all insisted that I was weird for being friends with her. If I’d cut things off sooner, if I’d actually listened to you—”

“Then I’d start wondering if body snatchers existed, because no one listens to me.” Jean grinned. “Don’t worry, buddy. You can make it up to me. We’ll talk prices later.” He winked and Eren snorted.

He was really lucky to have someone like Jean in his life.

His friend’s gaze lowered then rose again, nodding his head at the envelope.

“You gonna open that?”

Eren looked down at it, wincing. “I’m not sure what it’s gonna say. What if it isn’t what I want to hear?”

“It’s not like we don’t know where he lives. Besides, dude’s obsessed with you, I don’t think you need to worry.” Jean shifted off his bed, wandering to the door and turning off the light. There were still some smaller lights beside both their beds that were on, but Eren made no move to turn his off. Jean fell back onto his bed, dragging his IV along with him, and kicked the covers up before sliding beneath them.

He didn’t turn his light off, either.

“I’m gonna take a nap before my next visit. They won’t let me sleep.”

“You have a concussion.”

“Still, it’s hard being me.”

Eren just snorted again and sat staring at the envelope. He was sitting there for so long that eventually Jean’s breathing evened out. He let out a slow breath and flipped it over, ripping through the flap of the envelope and pulling out the sheet of paper inside. When he unfolded it, he expected some long, drawn-out explanation of why he’d left and why he wasn’t coming back. He expected to read about how Levi cared about him, but this was too much. He even thought maybe it would mention that he didn’t love him and it had all been the wolf’s influence.

He got none of that. Instead, he got a tiny paragraph that said more than an entire page ever could.

_Eren,_  
_I’m sorry. I’m all he has. I’ll be back._  
_Try to stay out of trouble._  
_Seriously. I’m too old for this shit._  
_Levi._

Eren smiled.

* * *

He had been in that stage between consciousness and unconsciousness when it had happened. His mind was happily drifting off into sleep, trying to stay focussed on fun, happy things when a loud shout of terror met his ears and he jerked awake.

He heard his heart-rate monitor spike, having been startled, but when he sat up and turned, he just saw Jean sitting up in bed. It took his sleep-muddled mind a few seconds to figure out what had just happened.

Jean was gripping the sheets on either side of his body tightly, chest rising and falling rapidly. There was sweat visible on his skin and the hospital gown he was wearing seemed to be a little damp from it.

The door opened then, a nurse coming in and turning on the lights. Eren winced at the brightness of it, but he got used to it fairly quickly because of the other smaller lights both he and Jean had left on.

The nurse checked them both over quickly, making sure everything was okay, then asked Jean if he needed anything. He shook his head, gaze fixed on his lap, hands still clenched in his sheets. She patted his shoulder lightly, promised him things would get better, then left the room. The door was kept ajar, allowing the noises from outside to filter through.

Jean took a few seconds, then stood up and wandered over to it, shutting it firmly before moving back to his bed.

He avoided looking at Eren while he got back beneath the covers, but he didn’t lie down. He just sat there, staring at his lap.

They were silent for a long while, Eren chewing over what he should say. He didn’t know what would be appropriate, considering he knew this was his fault, but the longer the silence stretched, the more tense Jean seemed to get so he just bit the bullet.

“Nightmare?”

Jean flinched at that but nodded curtly once.

“Mikasa said I was thrashing in my sleep before,” Eren said quietly. “So you’re not the only one.”

His friend was silent for a moment before he spoke. “You seem fine now.”

“I wasn’t sleeping.” And he wasn’t. He’d been in that weird stage between the two. He was sure the nightmares would come with a vengeance once he actually fell asleep.

“Oh,” Jean said.

They lapsed into another silence. After five minutes, it became unbearable.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Eren asked quietly. “I think you’ll find I can sympathize.”

Jean was playing with the bandages around his wrists again, scowling down at them. He licked his lips, hesitated for a moment, then spoke. “It’s just... they’re here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Annie and them. They’re here. In this hospital. With us.” He cast a quick glance at Eren before looking back at his hands. “I know they’re injured and they’re all handcuffed to their beds, but like... they do _magic_ , Eren. What’s stopping them from breaking free and coming to finish what they started?”

Eren felt his heart stutter in his chest, and it must’ve made a weird noise on the heart-rate monitor because Jean’s head shot up and he looked ashamed.

“I didn’t mean—shit, sorry.” He cursed again and raked a hand through his hair. Well, he tried, but the bandage made that difficult. “There’s a cop stationed outside our door, don’t worry. And there’s more over where they are keeping an eye on them. They’re not gonna get out, but it’s just...” He let out a slow breath. “I don’t even know how long I was gone. Sometimes I fall asleep and I feel like I can’t breathe. I feel like I’m suspended from the ceiling again, and my lungs are closing up, and I just...” He winced and clenched his hands into fists. “I know you think this is your fault, but it’s not. It’s _their_  fault, and... I hate it.” He cursed and then scrubbed at his face with both hands. When he finally pulled them away, he turned to look at Eren.

Eren didn’t know what to say to him. He knew Jean wasn’t the only one who’d have nightmares. He knew that this wasn’t _entirely_  his fault. He knew that it would take a lot of time for both of them to get over this, but he didn’t know how to _fix_  it.

Armin had once said exposure in the face of trauma helped, but he didn’t think it would help in a case like this. This was a little different. This was one of Eren’s oldest friends trying to murder him. This was Jean being kidnapped and held suspended from the ceiling of a warehouse for weeks with little food and water.

This was the kind of trauma no amount of exposure would cure.

“I’m sor—”

“Shut up,” Jean snapped, startling Eren. “I told you, this isn’t your fault. It’s theirs. They’re fucking _crazy_. At least despite everything, we made it out of this alive. Banged up and emotionally distraught, but alive. We can deal with the other stuff in our own way.” Jean shrugged one shoulder, picking at the edges of his blanket. “Might go to therapy. I don’t know. Was talking to my dad about it. Don’t know how much that’ll help, considering, but you know.”

Eren hesitated for a moment, wording his next sentence carefully. “There’s a guy Levi knows. Someone like him. He’s a therapist.”

Jean glanced up at him and Eren shrugged.

“I mean, if you want to see one. That might—it might be helpful to have it be someone like that. We can be more honest and open about-about what happened.”

Jean half-smiled. “We?”

Eren let out a small puff of air, shaking his head. “I’ve needed therapy since this all started, just didn’t really get around to it. Now... I don’t know, I think it would help. And if we can be open and honest about _everything_ , it would be even better, right?”

His friend nodded slowly, eyes going distant, like he was thinking about it. “Think you can get their number?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll—” He almost said he’d ask Levi for it, but thought better of it. “Maybe Mikasa can grab it off Hanji or something.”

“Cool.” Jean rubbed at his arm. “I’ll talk to my dad again. Trying to keep my mom out of the conversation, she’s getting a little hysterical every time she’s reminded about what happened.” He half-smiled. “Good news is they wrote a formal apology letter to Levi for everyone thinking it was him. Apparently Armin’s grandfather went up to his house to apologize, but Levi’s in Trost right now.”

“Yeah.” Eren shifted on the bed so he was facing Jean more. It was fairly obvious neither of them was very interested in sleeping. “How’s Erwin, anyway? Mikasa only said he was going to make it, but that’s pretty vague.”

“I’m not sure, to be honest.” Jean winced. “Mikasa’s been talking to Hanji about him, but I think she wants us to focus on healing without us worrying too much about him.” His expression darkened. “Reiner was an asshole to him. He acted like it was a game, to see how long before Erwin kicked the bucket. The walls of the cages they were in that weren’t made of silver were infused with wolfsbane, so it was making them weaker than normal. Reiner would come in every now and then and blow wolfsbane right in Erwin’s face. He was around during the full moon and poking at the wolf with a tire iron, blowing wolfsbane at it, pressing silver rods against its skin.”

Eren hated Reiner for his involvement with Annie, but aside from that, he’d actually always really liked him. Thought he was a nice guy, and compassionate. Understanding.

Hearing Jean’s words now made him feel sick to his stomach. Reiner wasn’t anything like Eren had thought he was. He was a horrible person, one who didn’t care about hurting the wolves because they were _wolves_.

“I tried to stop him every time he came around, but it was hard for me, too. I could barely breathe most of the time, I never got enough food or water, and they only let me down about once a day to piss. Surprised I didn’t wet myself before Mikasa turned, to be honest,” Jean muttered. “But I did what I could. I hated seeing him do that to Erwin. He was more conscious at the beginning, and every now and then he’d look over at me, and the agony in his eyes just...” He shook his head and Eren saw his hands trembling before he clenched them into fists. “It was hard. I really didn’t think he was gonna make it. That last day, when Reiner was being a dick, he got pissed off because he didn’t like what I had to say. When he came to confront me about it, I spat in his face. Probably shouldn’t have done that while he was holding a tire iron, but well.” He shrugged, and Eren realized that must’ve been the day he’d gotten caught.

He’d woken up to Jean unconscious and bleeding, and Armin had said he’d been mouthing off at Reiner.

“You’re a good guy, Jean,” Eren said quietly.

“Yeah, well.” He shrugged again. Eren felt like it was turning into an automatic reaction for him to trail off without having to finish a thought.

They sat in silence for a while longer before Eren motioned the TV. “Wanna watch a movie or something? I’m sure there’s some really bad movie playing at this hour.”

Jean grinned at him and reached for the remote control, the two of them settling back in bed and turning on the television.

Neither of them went to sleep that night.

* * *

“Eren!”

Said individual jumped, having been in the middle of speaking to his father about his injuries and turned to the door. Connie was grinning at him so widely that it almost looked like his smile was trying to take over his face. Sasha was behind him, looking relieved and waving.

Grisha patted Eren’s shoulder, said they could finish later, and moved away so that the other two could hurry over to Eren’s bed. They nodded to Jean, who grunted a greeting, gaze locked on his computer while he typed away, as usual.

“Hey,” Eren said with a smile, watching to make sure his dad was really leaving. He shut the door upon exiting the room, probably because he knew how loud Connie and Sasha could be. “How’s it going?”

“Awesome now that you’re awake,” Connie slugged him in the shoulder. Eren winced and Jean snapped at him to keep his hands to himself. Connie looked ashamed and raised both hands over his head, as if in silent promise never to touch him again.

Eren figured they’d both probably visited before he’d woken up, because they barely gave Jean a second glance, and he knew that Connie really liked Jean. They’d probably already had a little pow-wow while Eren had been unconscious.

“Everyone says you guys really helped out with everything. Thanks for that, you saved my life.”

“You’d have done the same for us,” Connie insisted, falling into the chair beside his bed. Sasha scooted over the one that was on Jean’s side of the room, but he didn’t seem to care. He was still scowling at his laptop as if it had offended him.

“Still, thanks. I owe you one.”

“Nah, you always had our backs in school, it’s all good.” Connie waved a dismissive hand, then leaned forward. “But Werewolves, dude. What the shit! What’s it like dating a Werewolf?”

“Uh—like dating a normal person?” Eren hadn’t meant for it to be a question, but it had come out that way. “He’s only a wolf three nights a month.”

“Have you guys ever... you know...”

Jean’s hands slapped over his ears at Sasha’s question, looking scandalized. Eren just felt disgusted.

“What? No! He’s a wolf!”

“I was just asking. For science, you know.” Sasha shrugged, but she was grinning. Eren didn’t like thinking about what went on in her head.

“No, we haven’t. I just pet him and hang out in his basement with him so he’s not alone.”

“Cool.” Connie grinned. “We haven’t really gotten the chance to hang with Werewolves in their wolf forms—”

“You don’t want to,” Jean muttered from his bed, which Connie ignored.

“—but we spent a lot of time with Mike. He’s a really cool guy.”

“Quiet,” Sasha cut in. “Very quiet.”

“Yeah, quiet, but really cool. He’s super nice, too. Protective though.”

Eren frowned. “Of you guys?”

“Mostly of his pack, but I think he likes us since we saved everyone.” Connie puffed out his chest proudly. It lasted only a second before he deflated, going serious once more. “We wanted to call the cops. When midnight approached and we hadn’t heard from anyone, we wanted to call the cops but he wouldn’t let us.”

“We’re sorry,” Sasha said quietly. “Maybe things would’ve turned out differently.”

Eren wondered if they were talking about the scars he had. Or Mikasa turning into a wolf. Or something completely unrelated.

He reached out to lightly punch Connie’s arm, smiling. “You saved everyone with your Sanskrit. Seriously, thank you. Things could’ve been... they could’ve ended badly. You did good.”

“Yeah.” Connie shifted his gaze to Jean, but he was still glaring at his laptop. “We’re glad everyone’s okay. We were worried.”

“Thanks.” Eren smiled. “Hey, so rumour has it, you know the whole story about my history.”

Connie puffed up with pride again. “Oh, well, yeah I might have some knowledge on that. Did a little digging and everything.”

“You hacked into Eren’s email and stole the information the professor sent him,” Jean piped in.

“Details,” Connie insisted, turning to him. “I still did the translating.”

“Wanna share? I only got the cliffnotes version from Annie while she was getting ready to sacrifice me to her Pagan Gods.”

He’d expected a smile at that, but everyone in the room winced. Too soon for jokes about his own death, apparently. He hoped it got easier, because joking about dying was pretty much the only thing keeping him together most of the time.

Connie and Sasha started explaining everything to him that they’d told the others. Eren saw Jean paying attention sometimes, as if he’d only gotten the short-hand version, but mostly he typed away on his computer. Eren hadn’t bothered asking what he was doing, figuring he’d let him know if he felt like sharing.

After two hours, and a _lot_  of words from Connie and Sasha, they’d moved away from Eren’s history and started talking about how things were progressing outside the hospital. Apparently Annie and Bertholdt were released and in jail now, but Reiner was sticking around for a few more days. Apparently his injuries had been worse and Eren saw Jean’s lips turn up slightly at that, as if pleased he was badly injured. Eren thought back to their conversation from the night before and figured Jean thought he’d gotten what he deserved.

Mikasa came by a while later with Armin, so Connie and Sasha took that as their cue to leave, but made Eren promise to let them know when he got out so they could come by his place. Connie probably wanted to spy on his computer.

Sasha probably wanted to raid his fridge.

He said goodbye to them both, and then grinned at Armin, who started crying when he came to give him a hug.

At least everyone was alive. That’s all that mattered to Eren right then.

They were all alive.

* * *

Being hospitalized was a lot more boring than they made it look on TV. Eren had Jean with him, which tended to help most of the time, but since Jean’s injuries weren’t as bad as Eren’s, he got sent home much faster. Eren ended up stuck with a hyperactive kid for a majority of the remainder of his time there. He normally didn’t mind children, but he was starting to get sick of watching Pokémon.

Something he never thought he would ever experience, but apparently there _was_  such a thing as too much of a good thing.

By the time almost two full weeks had passed since Eren had woken up, he was ready to murder someone if he wasn’t allowed out of this place. Which turned out to be convenient timing since that was the same day they said he could be released. He figured his father being a doctor had helped him get out earlier, but either way, he was thankful for his release. Not half as thankful as he was the day he’d woken up and was able to move the fingers in his left hand, but it was up there with other happy things. 

A few people came by his house the day of his release to spend some time with him. Connie and Sasha were there, along with Jean and Armin—and Mikasa, for obvious reasons. When Eren’s parents weren’t closeby, Connie took him aside to ask for advice on a website design. He’d proclaimed he and Sasha were starting a business surrounding Supernatural research. Jean seemed to take offense to this, insisting he had been the first to start that, and even had an entire _folder_  dedicated to the Supernatural on his laptop, but Eren tuned them out relatively quickly while they bickered.

He was more focussed on the one person who _wasn’t_  there.

Levi.

He’d received a text from him that morning explaining he was still with Erwin, and while Eren understood, he couldn’t help but feel like Levi was avoiding him. He tried not to dwell on it, focussing instead on his friends as much as possible. Once night fell and everyone started to leave, Eren got ready for bed but he didn’t head for his room. Now that he was finally out of the hospital, he wanted to sit down and have a chat with Mikasa.

Even though Jean and Armin had been home and around for her to talk to, both of them had insisted that she only wanted to speak to Eren about it. Well, Eren was back now, and he wasn’t going to make her wait any longer. Now that everyone was gone, they were going to sit and talk, and he was going to help her through this the same way she helped him through virtually everything.

Walking slowly towards her room, he made sure his parents’ door was closed and then padded across the carpet, enjoying the feel of it beneath his bare feet. Everything seemed to be more acute since his near death experience. He felt like he appreciated things a lot more, even something as minuscule as the way carpet felt beneath his feet.

Stopping in front of her door, he let out a slow breath, then cursed because she’d probably heard that with her new super hearing. He was _definitely_  never having sex with Levi in this house again.

If he ever _had_  sex with Levi again.

Shaking his head to rid his thoughts of Levi, he knocked on the door, waiting. It opened without any hint of movement from the other side. Not only was Mikasa going to sneak up on him more often than before, but now she would do it without even trying.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi,” she replied. Her eyes gave him a quick once over, taking in his grey sweats and short-sleeved black shirt. Her eyes lingered briefly on his bandaged wrist before returning towards his face. He noticed she wasn’t looking right at him, though. She seemed focussed on something over his shoulder. “Going to bed?”

“Eventually. I thought maybe we could talk.”

Her eyes shifted to their parents’ bedroom door. Eren turned to look at it. He had to wonder what she heard beyond it. Was she worried about them overhearing? Were they on the other side of the door actively listening?

He turned back to her. “Wanna go for a drive?”

“Like where?”

He shrugged. “Hannes’ is still open. Unless he’s got reduced hours, too.”

“He lives above the coffee shop, the disappearances literally made no difference to him. Aside from Jean not paying his mortgage.”

“Then let’s go there.”

She gave him a look, managing to do it without actually _looking_  at him, and it took him a few seconds to realize that leaving to go to the coffee shop wasn’t better than staying in their house in terms of eavesdroppers. There likely wouldn’t be anyone there, but Hannes would be manning the till which meant he could potentially overhear.

“How about we go to the store?” he asked. “We can grab some coffee from Hannes’ and then go hang out in the store.”

Mikasa seemed to consider this, then nodded slowly and turned to grab some clothes. Eren returned to his own room and grabbed some socks and shoes. He pulled on a hoodie just for good measure, though didn’t think it would be particularly cold out. When he was ready, he went to wait for Mikasa at the top of the stairs. She’d also pulled a hoodie on over her shirt, but she’d also still been dressed so she looked more presentable than Eren did.

They left the house, Eren calling out to their parents that they were getting coffee. He doubted they would say anything, it wasn’t a secret Mikasa had been acting differently since the incident. They definitely weren’t happy, as proven by Carla rushing down the hallways and leaning over the railing to ask where they were going and how long they would be gone. In Eren’s opinion, everything was fine now, but people were obviously still scared.

He promised they would be going to the store once they’d grabbed coffees from Hannes’ and Carla told him she would call the store in ten minutes and if no one answered, there would be hell to pay.

Evidently she didn’t want them leaving the house at all, but the glance she threw Mikasa’s way made it clear she understood what was going on. Besides, it wasn’t too late yet, only a little past nine. Hopefully that was of some comfort to her.

He waved his way out the door, shutting it behind himself. Climbing into Eren’s truck, they headed towards the center of town in silence. The radio was playing happy, upbeat music that didn’t fit the atmosphere, but Eren didn’t change it. He just kept his eyes on the road and pulled into a parking spot once they’d reached the coffee shop.

“Do you want to come in, or wait here?”

She hesitated, so he told her to just wait and headed inside to get their usual orders. Hannes seemed insanely relieved to see him and tried to make small talk for a few minutes. Eren tried being polite about it at first, but when it started to stretch out and Hannes still hadn’t started their order, he interrupted him and informed him that Mikasa was waiting in the car.

That got him moving slightly faster and he took Eren’s order, making the drinks while asking a few more questions. Eren mostly tried to dodge them, since he still didn’t like talking about it. It was hard to lie about this, while also simultaneously telling the truth.

Annie trying to kill him still stung when he thought about it too much.

He took the coffees from Hannes with thanks, then headed back outside. Mikasa had to lean across the driver’s seat to push open his door since he didn’t have any hands free. He gave her the cup with her beverage in it before climbing into the truck, setting his own down in the cupholder.

Turning the truck around, he drove literally a block and a half to the store, parking it outside. They both climbed out, ignoring the sign on the front that advised the store was closed after six daily until further notice. Thankfully Mikasa had thought to bring the key, since Eren hadn’t, and she unlocked the door. Once they were inside, Eren locked it again and turned on the main lights. They moved to the counter and Eren set his coffee down on the back one so he could turn and jump up onto it. His wrist twinged in protest, stitches pulling, but he ignored that. They were coming out in two days anyway, he was sure they were fine.

Settling himself comfortably on the back counter, he picked up his coffee and held it loosely between both hands. Mikasa had taken a seat on the chair behind the till, turning to face him, picking at the edge of the lid of her takeaway cup and staring down at her fingers.

They said nothing for a few moments, sipping at their coffee. Eren figured she’d talk when she was ready, he didn’t want to push. After ten minutes passed and most of his coffee was gone, along with the promised call from his mother, he remembered who he was with and realized she would _never_  talk without prompting.

He didn’t even know how to start, he just knew he wanted to be there to support her, so he went with what first came to mind.

“Jean and Armin said you didn’t want to talk to them.”

He saw her pause in picking at the edge of her cup, saying nothing. She stayed motionless for a few seconds longer before starting that up again.

“There isn’t really anything to talk about.”

Eren rubbed the back of his head, letting out a small sigh and looking around the store, as if for inspiration. “You know this doesn’t change anything, right?”

“I saw them,” she whispered.

“Saw who?”

“Them. Jean and Armin. I saw them when I started to shift. They were…” she trailed off, shaking her head and taking a sip of her drink, still avoiding his eye.

“Scared?” he asked quietly.

Silence, and then she nodded ever so slightly, barely moving her head.

“I was scared of Levi,” Eren said after a moment, trying to phrase his next few sentences carefully. “Not because of what he was, but because of what he could do. When he’s not in control, anything can happen. Armin and Jean weren’t scared of you. They were scared of the wolf.”

“I _am_  the wolf.”

“No, you’re not.” Eren slid off the counter, setting his drink down and moved up to her, bending down slightly to force her to look at him. She didn’t, avoiding his gaze. “When I think about Levi, I think about him as Levi, and him as the wolf. They’re not the same, they’ve never been the same. You as Mikasa are not the same as you as the wolf. You’re not in control as the wolf, and when you shifted, nobody knew what was going to happen. If you’d been any other Werewolf, you would’ve killed Jean and Armin without a second’s hesitation. But because you’re a descendent of someone sworn to protect someone like me, you didn’t.”

She looked away from him again, and he wondered if maybe he’d said the wrong thing.

“I almost killed Reiner.”

“But you didn’t.”

“And Annie.”

“But you _didn’t_.” He bent down further in front of her, putting his hands on her knees. “Mikasa, you shifted for the first time and you regained control of yourself _so_  fast. That’s literally amazing. You shifted and you didn’t kill anyone. You _saved_  me.” He offered her a smile. “That’s something you’ve always been good at.”

She let out a puff of breath that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

“You are still the same person.”

“They’re weird around me, now,” she whispered.

“Of course they are. They don’t know how you’re feeling because you won’t tell them. They offered to talk to you about this because they care. When you said no, they didn’t know what to do. They thought you needed some space, so they gave it to you. But they care. Mikasa, you’re still the same person you were a week ago to us. That isn’t going to change. Ever.”

She said nothing for a moment, tightening her hands around the cup she held. Not enough to crumple it, but enough that Eren could tell she was doing it.

“So what now?” she asked quietly. “Full moon’s coming. What do I do?”

“Well, we can—I mean, I can lock you up here. Or we can go to Levi’s and use the cage. He probably won’t be back by then.” He cut himself off before he went off on a tangent, leaving it at that. “When Erwin is better, maybe we can talk to them.”

She nodded once, still picking at the edge of her cup and avoiding his gaze. “Hanji texted me.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She took another sip of her drink, still being sure to look anywhere but at him. “They said that I could come out if I wanted to. Spend some time with them. They said Levi’s been with Erwin this whole time, so they’ve been dealing with pack politics with Mike for the past week.”

“And do you want to go?”

She shrugged, which wasn’t really an answer.

“I think you should go. I think being with Hanji and others like you would be helpful.”

He saw her frowning, her mouth turning down slightly, as if he’d said something offensive.

“Not forever,” he added, wondering if that was the problem. “Just for a little while. Just to get things under control. I’m sure it hasn’t been easy, being able to hear things you couldn’t before.”

She shrugged again, but her hands tightened around the cup enough for it to be crushed. She forced herself to release her grip, thankfully not spilling any coffee since it had been almost empty. She turned to set it down on the counter and when she faced Eren again, she looked down into her lap, playing with the edges of her nails.

Eren watched her for a moment, something occurring to him much too slowly. Ever since waking up in the hospital, she’d been acting weird. She wouldn’t look at him.

“Mikasa?”

She said nothing and started to lift her head before catching herself and keeping her head bowed, hair curtaining her face.

“Mikasa, why won’t you look at me?”

The picking at her nails stopped and she instead clenched her hands together, scowling down at them.

“I don’t want you to be scared of me.”

“Are you worried you’ll see fear in my eyes or something? You’re my sister.”

“I can’t control it yet,” she whispered. “The… intensity. Hanji said it takes time.”

So he was right. She didn’t want to look at him because she knew how he’d react. It was probably why she thought Jean and Armin were scared of her. He remembered the fear coursing through him the first time he’d looked Levi in the eye. The first time he’d looked Erwin in the eye.

He remembered that feeling of fear and helplessness, and he hated that Mikasa was seeing that look on other people’s faces. He wondered how many people she’d looked at before realizing something was wrong and deciding to avoid eye contact. How long had she been doing this until he’d woken up?

He sighed, shifting closer and moving so he was on his knees instead of crouching, his thighs beginning to burn. “You’ll get the hang of it. I think you need to consider going to spend some time with Hanji. Not because I want you to go away, but because I don’t want you to hate yourself. You always take care of me. It’s my turn to take care of you, even if it means losing you for a few weeks.” He bent down further, trying to catch her eye, but she just shifted her gaze to the side.

“This doesn’t change anything, Mikasa. You’re my sister. I’m your brother. I love you, and if I could take this back, I would, but I can’t. And I’m sorry. But I am already in love with a Werewolf, you really don’t have to worry about anything driving a wedge between us. As for Armin, he’s worried about you. He wouldn’t be worried if he didn’t care. And Jean’s in love with you, so, you know.”

She said nothing to that, as if she still didn’t quite believe him. Letting out a sigh, he stood and pulled his phone out, swiping the bottom and getting his home screen up so he could go through his contacts.

“What are you doing?”

“We’re gonna have a game night.”

“What?” she asked, so startled that she forgot not to look at him. He caught her gaze, and while the fear slowly started to creep up his spine, it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it would be. Maybe staring Erwin in the eye as often as he had made other stares less intense. After all, Erwin was a pack leader, weren’t they extra powerful or something?

Eren managed to force a grin onto his face, feeling it was fairly genuine.

“A game night. Armin’s got some board games, and I know Jean’s sitting on his fat ass doing nothing, so we’re all gonna hang out here until morning and play games. Once you realize that nothing’s changed, and that Jean is _still_  a sore loser when you beat him at Monopoly, we’re gonna call Hanji and you’re gonna go spend some time with them.”

She looked like she wanted to argue, but Eren just gave her a look. She shut her mouth and let out a sigh of defeat, making Eren grin.

Then he called Armin.

* * *

Mikasa’s sudden departure had hit their parents fairly hard. She’d insisted it was just for a few weeks so she could come to terms with what had happened, and about almost having killed Reiner in her adrenaline-induced fit of rage, but Eren could tell they were still upset.

She seemed better though, after a night of Monopoly, Trouble and Life. It had taken about an hour for all of them to get her to look them in the eye, but by morning, none of them were affected by her gaze, no matter how intense. That seemed to help a great deal, and Eren was glad Armin and Jean were such good friends.

By day four of Mikasa’s departure, Eren practically had to beg his father to go back to work. With Armin working, Mikasa gone, Jean doing whatever it was Jean did, Connie and Sasha being weirdos, and Annie being in jail, he was seriously lacking in entertainment. He was going stir-crazy, and felt like the only reason his father had let him go back to work was because he was driving _him_  crazy. It was obvious neither he nor Carla were happy to let him out of their sight, but he was an adult, they couldn’t keep him trapped at home forever.

Of course, his return to work had also given them the opportunity to ask really uncomfortable questions. Like what had happened to the storage room—the door was covered in clawmarks—and why the front door had been broken. It was something that had happened very close to the day of Eren’s disappearance. They hadn’t asked him about it beforehand probably because he was barely around.

They probably hadn’t even thought about it again until Eren had asked to go back to work.

He didn’t really have an answer for them, and said some kids must’ve broken in and gone wild on the place. Neither of his parents looked like they believed him, but they didn’t press the issue. He just heard them hissing at each other later that same night about secrets. He’d have to give them a reasonable explanation eventually, but for now they seemed content to drop it, so he made sure not to bring it up again.

Eren had never thought he’d be happy to be back at work, but it felt good to have a routine. The stitches had come off, but the wound was still bandaged since it hadn’t fully healed. His other injuries were more or less closed, but not fully healed either. He had to be careful with what he could do, but he was still able to lower small boxes and restock the shelves. Anything to keep himself moving and his brain occupied.

It worked for a time, but there was only so much he could restock, and by the second day, everything was fully stocked and perfect, which lead him to clean the store. Which also finished relatively quickly.

On day three, he had officially run out of things to keep him occupied, which had him sitting behind the counter with a magazine, flipping through it idly for something to do. There were lots of articles on the Brad and Angelina break-up, which meant nothing to him, but he read it anyway.

The door opened, a light breeze blowing into the store, but Eren didn’t look up, remaining in his seat with his head in one hand, flipping the page of his magazine.

“Welcome,” he said absently, eyes shifting back and forth while he read. A shadow appeared right in front of him and he glanced up, then jumped at how close the figure was. “Jesus! Do you _have_  to give me heart attacks?” he demanded, closing the magazine and using it to hit Levi in the arm. He almost wished he’d thought to roll it up and smack him on the head, but he might lose an arm if he did that.

“Your fault for having shitty customer service skills.”

“My customer service skills are top tier.”

“You didn’t even look up.”

“I acknowledged you!”

“You muttered a word into your closed fist while reading a magazine.”

“Are you gonna bitch about my social skills, or kiss me?” Eren demanded, crossing his arms and scowling. “You do know you’ve been gone for weeks, right? I was starting to think—” Eren cut himself off, not wanting to say it aloud.

Levi’s eyes flashed. “I told you I was coming back.”

“Yeah, but, you know… It took you a while,” he muttered, shifting his weight on the seat. He felt like he was whining, but it had been a long time since he’d last seen him, so he would be lying if he said he wasn’t upset.

“Erwin’s condition was… unstable. He’d been exposed to wolfsbane for an extended period of time. We had to be careful with him in the hospital, and we had to make sure he’d be okay for the full moon.”

“So, is he…?”

“He’s fine.” Levi’s gaze lowered to Eren’s wrist. “And you?”

“I’m fine. I mean, mostly.” He motioned his head. “Still a little messed up, you know, psychologically, but I’ll survive.”

Levi eyed him for a moment longer. “I hear you’ve set up sessions with Oluo.”

“Uh, yeah.” Eren rubbed at one arm, feeling uncomfortable. “Jean, too. Hanji gave Mikasa his number. We figured—I mean, being able to talk openly might, you know, help.”

“Mikasa said you’ve been having nightmares.”

Stupid Werewolf hearing. Then again, his dad had been the one waking him up most of the time, so maybe it wasn’t so much Werewolf hearing as it was him screaming embarrassingly loudly.

“Yeah, well, someone I considered a friend tried to slit my throat.” He crossed his arms and shrugged. “It’s a lot to digest.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Eren asked, confused.

“If I hadn’t come, you wouldn’t have been bound to me. You would’ve chosen her. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry I didn’t fall for a psychotic bitch who’d rather kill a friend to get power than just live with not being stronger than everyone else?” Eren asked incredulously.

Levi scowled. “Well when you put it like that, I guess I’m not _that_  sorry.”

Laughing slightly, Eren shook his head and reached across the counter. If Levi wasn’t going to do it, then he would. He grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him forward, pressing their lips together. He knew something was wrong the second they connected, Levi’s kiss stiff and his lips pressed firmly together. He also kept his hands to himself, which was something he never did, even before they’d gotten together.

Eren pulled back, hand still against the back of his neck, and stared at him.

“What?” he asked, feeling sick.

“We should talk about this.”

“About what?” Eren asked, anger rising slowly but steadily. “You told me before that this part of our relationship wasn’t the protective instinct kicking in. So what are we talking about?”

“I just want to make sure you know what you’re doing,” Levi insisted, scowling slightly, as if Eren was being unreasonable all of a sudden. “I’m a Werewolf, and you’ve almost died multiple times since we’ve met. I want you to think about your own well-being before deciding you’re okay with this.”

“Are you serious right now?” Eren asked incredulously. “You know what the binding means, right?”

“Yes.”

“So what makes you think I don’t want this?” he demanded, voice rising. “Or are you just trying to hide behind the Werewolf excuse to get out of being stuck with me?”

“What?” Levi’s face looked completely blank, but Eren felt like he could discern at least some level of confusion in his eyes. “Eren, do _you_  know what the mark means?”

“Yes, it means I love you!” he shouted, feeling anger rising again.

Levi stared at him, their faces still inches apart since Eren hadn’t released him yet. If he did at all. He hadn’t decided yet. He was contemplating shoving Levi in the storage room and keeping him trapped there until he stopped being an asshole.

“What?” Levi asked again.

“What?!” Eren echoed angrily.

“Eren, that’s not what the mark means.”

The brunet blinked, the anger leaving him instantly. “What?”

“That’s not what it means. It means giving yourself completely over to someone, but that doesn’t have to mean love. That can mean any number of things. Loyalty, servitude, friendship.”

They stared at each other for a few moments, and for a second, Eren felt like blood was slowly rising to his face when he realized he’d just shouted the fact that he loved Levi _at_  Levi.

“Oh,” he said. “Well. Oh.”

They were silent for a moment before slowly, a smirk began creeping the edges of Levi’s lips upwards.

“That was quite the confession, Jaeger. Might wanna be quieter next time, I think Mikasa might’ve heard you from Trost.”

“Oh, fuck off!” Eren shoved him away then, falling back into his seat and scowling at him. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned away from Levi, pouting slightly.

He heard more than saw Levi come around the back of the counter, but he pointedly ignored him, finding something fascinating to stare at across the store. Arms wrapped around him from behind, Levi’s chin resting on his shoulder, cheek brushing against Eren’s.

“Short ass doesn’t even need to bend down to get my shoulder there,” Eren muttered.

Levi punched him in the kidney.

Eren cursed colourfully.

Everything was back to normal.

More or less.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More or less O_O


	24. Chapter Twenty-Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been trying to post this chapter for hours. Fuck my internet. 
> 
> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

Levi stood staring intently at his front door, listening to the steps beyond crunch back and forth across fallen leaves. He heard a creak when a foot put weight on one of the porch steps, then the movement shifted back to the ground, pacing in the leaves once more.

He inhaled deeply, feeling his patience beginning to wear thin. He acknowledged that his return and first conversation with Eren probably hadn’t gone as well as it could have—he’d been a lot more loquacious in his head—but he hadn’t realized it had gone so badly that Eren didn’t even want to enter his house.

After leaving the store, Levi had thought Eren would come over right after work.

He hadn’t. He’d gone home, where he’d stayed up half the night playing video games. Not that Levi had been watching him from the roof across the street or anything.

Eren had gone to bed around five in the morning. Not that Levi had noticed the time or anything.

He’d tossed and turned for about an hour before Levi’s phone had gone off, forcing him to split his attention between the caller and Eren. It was Erwin, calling to see how he was doing. Which was ridiculous, since Erwin was the one who’d been in the hospital for days on end.

Levi answered curtly and insisted Erwin was bothering him, but he was glad to hear he was doing better. And Mikasa seemed to be happier, too, which was a relief.

Erwin had invited himself over for dinner the following weekend, informing Levi that he would be bringing Hanji and Mikasa. Levi told him to keep his lazy fat ass in Trost, but Erwin just hung up on him.

By the time he’d returned his full attention to Eren, his bed was empty and he’d left the house to go to work. That was concerning, because Eren hadn’t slept much at all. Levi had contemplated going in to spend time with him, but Eren seemed perfectly content reading a magazine.

He didn’t even check his phone once.

The only reason Levi was even home was because he’d caught Eren getting into his truck after dinner and when he’d started driving in the direction of Levi’s house, he’d had to speed home in his own truck using a back road to make sure he beat him there.

Which he had. And now he was wishing he hadn’t, because he’d have had a reason to be outside with Eren.

Instead, he was just standing in his front hall listening to Eren pace outside and wondering what he was thinking.

Levi had been stressed enough during his absence that Eren would change his mind about their relationship. He’d been a nervous wreck the day before, regardless of whether or not Eren had noticed. How could Eren shout about love and then immediately ignore him right afterwards?

It was becoming harder and harder to tolerate Eren’s pacing. He wanted to storm out there and yell at him, but he refrained. Instead, he just yanked his phone from his pocket, pulled up his text messages with Eren, and sent him one.

**[User]**  
Are you coming in or what?!

He waited, listening hard. He heard Eren’s phone buzz, the footsteps pausing briefly while clothing shuffled. After a moment, he heard Eren’s fingers tapping against the screen of his phone.

**[Eren]**  
You could come out, you know.

**[User]**  
You could come IN.

The response came slower this time, Eren motionless outside for a long while before his thumbs began tapping the screen again.

**[Eren]**    
You didn’t exactly make me feel welcome in your life yesterday.

Levi wasn’t having this conversation over text messages. They were fucking adults.

Storming to the door, he wrenched it open, Eren whipping around at the bottom of the porch steps and staring at him wide-eyed.

“I told you, I just wanted you to be sure!” Levi snapped. “I don’t want you to feel like you _have_  to stay with me because of a stupid mark on your arm.”

“Well I’ve made my stance pretty clear, you’re the one acting like you don’t know what you want!” Eren insisted.

“I know what I want!”

“Do you?!” Eren demanded.

“Yes!”

“Really?!”

“Yes!” Levi shouted. “Now get in the house!”

“Fine!” Eren shouted back.

“ _Fine_!” Levi bellowed, the word more of a roar than an actual word, fingers already beginning to darken and claws growing.

Eren gave him a startled look at that, and for a second Levi thought he’d fucked up, that he should’ve tried to keep the wolf in check a bit more. After a second, Eren shoved his phone back into his pocket and walked up the porch steps, moving past Levi into the house. Once he was through the door, the Werewolf slammed it shut and locked it, then rounded on Eren.

He shoved him back against the wall before he could open that stupid mouth of his and say something ridiculous and kissed him. He kissed him like he would never have the chance to kiss him ever again. It was messy, and probably painful for Eren, but Levi didn’t care. He just buried his hands in the other’s dark hair and tugged him closer, kissing him harder. He could feel his nails lengthening further, and when his teeth ached slightly, he realized his fangs were coming out and he broke the kiss quickly, not wanting to draw blood.

Eren was breathing hard, hands gripping Levi’s upper arms and eyes unfocussed, like he wasn’t sure what had just happened.

“I told you,” Levi said, voice a low growl while he tried to get himself back under control, hands sliding down the sides of Eren’s neck, needing to scent-mark him as much as possible after weeks of being away from him. “Wolves are very territorial.”

“You don’t say.”

“Shut up, Eren.” Levi kissed him again, pulling him away from the wall and shoving him across the entrance. Eren’s foot hit the stairs and he fell over backwards. Since he was still holding Levi’s arms, Levi went down with him, landing on top of him but managing to break the kiss so that they wouldn’t get hurt too badly. The last thing he wanted to do was bite through Eren’s lip or break his nose.

“Ow,” Eren whined. “You know I’m injured, right?”

“Stop being a baby, you’re fine,” Levi struggled to his feet, holding a hand out to Eren. He helped haul him to his feet and gave him another shove, forcing him backwards up the stairs, hands sliding up beneath the front of his shirt, rubbing them along the skin of his stomach and chest.

“I’ve been good about keeping my hands to myself until we figured out what was hunting you. I’m done keeping them to myself,” he said, almost snarling the words.

Eren opened his mouth to say something—probably stupid—but Levi changed positions so that his hands twisted beneath Eren’s shirt, both of them curling into the collar and then jerking his arms so that the shirt ripped right down the middle. The words that were about to escape Eren were replaced with a strangled cry. Levi felt like it was one of pain, as if he’d just ruined one of Eren’s favourite shirts.

He didn’t care. They’d reached the top of the stairs and he turned Eren around, shoving him towards the bedroom while also grabbing the back of his shirt with one hand, yanking it off him.

When his eyes caught sight of the injuries on his back, he growled. It was a guttural sound, something low in his throat, and he felt like a part of it was the wolf. He was disappointed in himself for not having saved Eren. Months and months of watching over him, trying to protect him, and Mikasa was the one who’d ended up saving his life.

He would never be able to forgive himself for that. He’d let Eren down. He would be scarred, bearing the marks of a psychopath, forever reminded of the trauma he’d been through.

They’d entered the bedroom now, and Levi looked up at Eren when the other turned, crossing his arms over his equally injured chest, looking uncomfortable.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “I know it’s not exactly attractive but I can’t… They’re gonna scar, so it’s...” He didn’t seem to know what to say, and Levi felt so angry at the fact that Eren thought he was disgusted that he almost snapped at him.

He managed to reign it in, reminding himself that Eren wasn’t a mind-reader and therefore didn’t recognize that he was angry at himself for what had happened. And Annie.

Mostly Annie.

“What exactly are you implying?” Levi asked, voice still more of a growl than anything else.

Eren gave him a startled look, mouth opening once before closing, like he wasn’t sure what to say. He took a few steps backwards while Levi advanced and let out a shout when he fell over, landing on the bed.

Levi closed the distance quickly, straddling Eren’s thighs and grabbing his hands, pinning them to the bed above his head. He made sure to grab at his _hands_  and not his wrists, like he normally would’ve done. He was sure the wound had healed, but he wasn’t willing to test that theory.

“Do you really think I care about the markings a crazy bitch carved into you?” Levi asked, glaring down at Eren. “If I can stand your pot belly, I can handle a few scars.”

“Hey!” Eren insisted, looking offended, but Levi didn’t let him dwell on it too much. He just bent down and kissed him again, slowly releasing his hands and letting his own slide down the length of Eren’s arms, down his sides, and then back up his chest. He let his fingers trace some of the symbols, only resisting licking at them because he didn’t want to risk getting his saliva into an open wound.

Nothing should ever happen in his human form, Erwin had promised him that, but he wasn’t going to risk it. It was bad enough the wolf kept peeking out whenever he got turned on by Eren, he didn’t need to accidentally turn him into a Werewolf.

Letting his hands explore Eren’s chest, he thrust his tongue into the other’s mouth, fingers spasming against his bronzed skin. He wanted to devour him, make him completely his in every way without the distracting thoughts of their first time together. He wanted to make Eren lose his fucking mind.

Either Eren could sense that or he was thinking the same thing, because his hands had grabbed the back of Levi’s shirt and he was wrenching it upwards, forcing them to break apart long enough to get the material up and over Levi’s head. He tossed it away as if it had personally offended him, and then yanked him back down to kiss him again.

Levi didn’t know how injured Eren still was, and he wasn’t sure if this was a good idea at the moment, but after not having seen him since he’d been driven away in an ambulance, asking Levi to wait now would be torture. His hands lowered to Eren’s fly and he unzipped it quickly, pushing the button through the opening and then broke the kiss so he could sit up. Eren had kicked off his shoes while Levi climbed off the bed, which was made easy since they were basically at the edge of it, and then wrenched the pants off Eren’s legs. He faltered ever so slightly when he saw the marks around Eren’s ankles, just above his socks, but forced himself to look past it. Humans healed more slowly, and he was going to have to accept there were a lot of things that would upset him right now. He couldn’t dwell on them or he may as well stop what they were doing right now.

“Lube?” Eren asked, arching his back so he could pull his own boxer-briefs off. That kind of annoyed Levi since he’d wanted to do it, but the hunt for lube was just as important so he turned and started digging through his night table to find some. He knew he’d bought some a while back, he just honestly wasn’t sure where he’d put it.

After some cursing and yanking the entire drawer out of the stand, he finally found the tube and dropped the drawer onto the ground beside the night table. He didn’t have time to fiddle with it to get it back into place, he’d do that later.

When he focussed back on Eren, the other had moved up the bed so he was lying properly lengthwise. He was still on top of the covers, and his body was flushed, patches of red showing up along his skin. Levi’s eyes immediately shifted to his cock, which stood erect and red-tipped, pre-cum collecting near the slit.

This was completely different to the last time they’d been together, where it had been all comfort and darkness. Now, the lights were on and nobody was comforting anyone. This time, it would just be hard and desperate, because Levi needed him. He’d never felt like he needed someone so badly in his life, but right now, he needed Eren like he needed oxygen.

He realized he could probably never be apart from him for this long ever again. Whether that was the wolf being territorial, the binding, the promise or just the fact that he loved this little shit so fucking much, he had no idea. He didn’t care, either. He was going to listen to that instinct.

Tossing the lube onto the bed, Levi quickly kicked off his shoes, hands at his pants so he could hurry and undo them. He’d gotten them off, sliding his underwear off with them, and was getting ready to crawl back onto the bed when Eren’s phone rang.

He hesitated for only a moment before reaching down to grab it. Eren had almost died, and he was positive it was likely his parents calling to check up on him. The last thing they wanted was to ignore the call and have someone show up outside his house banging on his door while they were fucking.

In fact, Levi wasn’t even sure his door was locked, which was probably worse, because then they would literally just walk in.

Checking the caller ID, he turned to hold it out to Eren, opening his mouth to inform him that it was his mother, and dropped the phone. Luckily, it landed on the bed, so it didn’t break, but Levi made no move to pick it up.

Eren had his hips in the air, legs spread and one hand at his asshole, pushing fingers into himself. His eyes were locked on Levi, tongue coming out to lick his lips, and the Werewolf was now positive this kid was going to fucking murder the shit out of him.

Snatching the phone back up took considerable effort, but he managed it, answering the call and putting it to his ear, eyes still on Eren.

“Hello Carla.”

_“Hello...”_  She sounded uncertain, and there was a hint of panic in the second syllable of the word.

“It’s Levi.”

_“Oh! Of course.”_  The relief was almost overwhelming to hear, but she recovered quickly. _“Sorry, he had mentioned you were back, I should have assumed it was you and not Jean he was going to see. I just—I thought he would be home by now. Um, is he—where is he?”_

_Lying naked on my bed finger-fucking himself._

“In the bathroom,” he said instead. He didn’t think she would appreciate the truth right now.

_“Oh. Um, is he coming home?”_

_Not if I have anything to say about it._

“I don’t think so, no. Is that a problem? Should I let him know he shouldn’t stay?”

Eren let out a moan, tilting his head back and lifting his hips further off the bed. His free hand was shaking from the strain, the other working at pushing a third finger in. Sweat had already started to coat his skin, the smell of it almost overwhelming for Levi because God fucking dammit, Eren smelled so good he wanted to eat him.

Carla was speaking into his ear, but he’d gotten distracted and missed everything she’d just said.

“I’m sorry? The signal is bad, I didn’t hear you.”

_“He’s all right? Staying there with you?”_

Levi found that to be a weird question, and wondered if maybe Carla still believed he was responsible for everything that had happened, even though it had been proven to be Annie. “Yes,” was all he said in response.

_“All right then. Let him know I called, and make sure you lock your front door. I don’t want anyone coming into your house while you’re both sleeping.”_  It made Levi wonder if the Jaegers had finally started locking their door. That made him happy to know, but he still wasn’t sure about his own and would have to check before they went to bed. _“Please keep an eye on him,”_  Carla said softly after a brief pause.

He couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take for Carla to stop worrying about Eren. Probably months. He could understand, he knew how close the family was, but he was going to have problems if Eren’s family called while they were trying to have sex.

The thought of asking Eren to move in with him surfaced briefly, but that was a conversation for another day. Right now, sex.

Well, hanging up on Eren’s mother, _then_  sex.

“I will. Thank you. Good night.” He hung up without waiting for her to respond. Hopefully she would get the hint. He felt like she probably had but had chosen to ignore it. Nobody wanted to picture their child having sex.

Levi dropped the phone onto the nightstand and crawled back onto the bed, sliding his hands up Eren’s body and pressing his fingers against his lips. Eren parted them, sucking on the fingers now in his mouth even while continuing to move his own hand, spreading his legs wider.

“I had no idea you were so greedy. I really should’ve invested in those silk-covered handcuffs.”

Levi pulled his fingers free, slapping at Eren’s wrist before realizing that it was his bandaged one. Eren didn’t say anything, but he did wince, pulling his fingers out and dropped that hand onto the bed as well.

Replacing them quickly, Levi made quick work of spreading him a little further, knowing the angle probably hadn’t allowed Eren to do a thorough job.

Satisfied with his work—and also finding it very hard to resist the sounds escaping Eren—Levi pulled his fingers free and grabbed the lube. It was still open, since Eren had used that instead of spit, so Levi squeezed some onto his hand, stroked himself a few times, and positioned himself without any preamble.

He’d been planning on slamming into him in one go, but something about what Eren’s mother had said bothered him, and he instead just gripped his waist and began easing in more slowly. Eren’s legs suddenly shot up to his waist, wrapping around him and pulling him closer, trying to get him to get on with it.

Levi’s gaze shot up to his face and he saw Eren scowling at him.

“Do I look breakable to you?” Eren asked, frustrated.

“Kind of,” Levi admitted.

That earned him an annoyed look, his heels digging harder into Levi’s lower back. He wondered if maybe Eren thought he was about to change his mind. Levi couldn’t change his mind if he wanted to, his dick was already _inside_  Eren, just not completely.

When Eren dug his heels in further, Levi gave up any pretenses of control, tightened his grip and slammed in completely. A groan escaped him at the tight warmth and he lowered his head to rest a sweaty forehead against Eren’s chest. Fuck, he’d missed this. Being with Eren, having him completely.

He could already feel himself losing control and they hadn’t even gotten past the first thrust.

“I hope you’re flexible,” he muttered. Eren let out a confused noise but Levi didn’t elaborate. He just forced Eren to release his legs so that he could throw one of them over his shoulder. It allowed him enough space to reach out and grip his headboard with one hand, the other fisting the pillow beside Eren’s head.

It would be difficult without touching Eren, but he was already digging claws into the wooden frame, and he wasn’t willing to injure Eren further. He’d suffered enough. It had been hard enough maintaining control of his own fingers to not wolf out while spreading him, it was impossible to expect him to maintain control _now_ , with his dick inside him.

Before anything else could be said, Levi pulled out abruptly and slammed back in. Eren’s head hit the headboard, but he didn’t seem to care. He just shifted the pillow between his head and the wooden support, pressed one fist backwards against it, and wrapped his other arm half-around Levi’s back.

It definitely wasn’t the best position, and Levi couldn’t be sure it was even comfortable for Eren, but in this moment it was difficult to care.

So he didn’t.

He just started jerking his hips rapidly, pushing into Eren hard enough for the bed to slam against the wall. At least this time they didn’t need to be quiet, which was a good thing because Eren’s moaning kept crescendoing before he’d catch himself and bite down on the sounds.

Levi wanted this to continue forever, the feeling of fucking Eren, of having him, of knowing he was alive. He never wanted it to end, which was probably why when he felt himself close to coming, he stopped abruptly and pulled out.

“Wha—?” Eren lifted his head slightly but Levi just shifted back.

“Roll over.”

“What?”

Levi didn’t have to repeat himself, because Eren’s brain seemed to have caught up to him since he’d rolled over onto his stomach even while asking his question.

Grabbing his hips and forcing them up so Eren was on his knees, he pushed his face down into the pillows and braced himself against the headboard with the other hand. It was still hard not to touch him, and he ended up moving his other hand from Eren’s head to the headboard as well so he wouldn’t accidentally scratch marks into his skull.

Apparently, this wasn’t working for Eren because he repositioned himself up onto his elbows and at first, Levi thought maybe he didn’t like the position. Then he reached up one hand, tugged at one of Levi’s wrists until he released the headboard, and shoved it down onto his waist. Levi’s hips stuttered to a halt, heart pounding in his chest and breathing coming in sharp, ragged pants.

Levi could see his claws already pressing against Eren’s skin, but he managed not to draw blood.

“It’ll hurt.”

“Please, because I didn’t get a knife through my wrist last month,” Eren insisted, turning to look over his shoulder. His face was flushed, sweat beading on his forehead and his pupils dilated, but he still managed to look extremely annoyed. “I’m fucking a Werewolf, you think I don’t know what I’m getting into? Fuck me properly, or get out.”

It was hot seeing Eren like this, and Levi acknowledged that it was true, he _had_  been more injured of late. While Levi wasn’t keen on adding to the injuries, at least these would be from sex and not a weird ritual.

So he brought his other hand to Eren’s waist, tightened his hold, and began thrusting more brutally. Eren had lowered himself back down so his face was in the pillows again, fisting the sheets and groaning loudly. He kept doing a weird jerking motion with his lower back that was driving Levi fucking crazy and his nails dug in deeper despite his best efforts.

Pressing his forehead against Eren’s spine, Levi clenched his eyes shut and came with a loud snarl, fangs elongating. He made sure to keep his teeth far away from Eren’s skin, mouth open in a pant while his body shuddered. He felt like a bad lover when he realized Eren was still hard beneath him so he carefully pulled one hand free from the other’s side, wrapped it around him, and began pumping him quickly.

It didn’t take long for Eren to come, biting hard into the pillow to muffle his voice. When he pulled his mouth off it, Levi saw drool and immediately decided that would be Eren’s pillow for the night.

Pulling out, he collapsed beside him, Eren lowering himself down with a wince. Levi didn’t know if it was one of pain or disgust. Cum was pretty gross, in his opinion, but there was no way he wasn’t going to mark Eren over and over with his. Rolling onto his side, he pressed himself against Eren and let one hand move out to rub slowly up and down his back, pressing his face into Eren’s neck.

“I’m gonna smell like you for days,” Eren commented with a small laugh. Levi didn’t correct him, still not having completely explained the scent-marking. He didn’t want to freak him out, though Eren didn’t seem concerned about smelling like him for a few days so it was probably a conversation he should have at some point. “Was that intentional?”

“I wasn’t around for a while, the smell faded. I don’t want anyone getting any ideas about you.”

“Humans still can’t smell this territorial thing you’ve got going on, remember?”

Levi just hummed in agreement, watching Eren. He’d lain down on his stomach, hands beneath the pillow and eyes closed while he rested his cheek onto the drool he’d previously coated the pillowcase with.

“We should clean up.”

Eren just let out a whine, but Levi sat up and smacked his ass hard. The other jerked up, turning to glare at Levi, then huffed and climbed out of bed, stomping for the bathroom. Levi followed him, knowing he’d need to clean up too, and he’d take less time than Eren would.

He got his stomach and hands clean, digging out the antiseptic for Eren’s new injuries, and then returned to the bed so he could change the covers. The advantage of fucking on top of the blankets meant the bed itself was relatively fine. Besides, Levi had no problems falling asleep to the smell of their activities.

He replaced the blankets, then flipped Eren’s pillow over so he wasn’t sleeping on drool. Padding out of the room, he went to check the door was locked, then ensured the house was secure and all windows were closed and latched before heading back to the bedroom and shutting the door. Turning off the light, he climbed into bed and waited for Eren to exit the bathroom. When he did, he paused at seeing the lights were off.

The pause went on a little bit too long, with Eren showing no signs of stepping further into the room.

“What?” Levi asked.

“Are we going to bed?”

“It’s late enough and I know you haven’t slept much.”

“I should tell my parents—”

“I already told your mother.”

“Oh.”

Eren was shifting his weight in the doorway, as if he didn’t want to spend the night. Which was weird, because he’d been perfectly fine fucking Levi but somehow sleeping with him was making him hesitate? That was new.

“Are you coming, or what?” he snapped, growing impatient.

Hesitating for a moment longer, Eren finally walked into the room and shut the bathroom door behind him. He crawled over Levi onto the other side of the bed and then pushed himself under the covers, rolling onto his side so he was facing Levi.

Doing the same, Levi stared at Eren in the darkness. He knew he could see Eren better than the other could see him, given his night vision. Eren looked uncomfortable, almost nervous, and his heart—which had calmed considerably since their activities—had started beating faster again.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

Levi wanted to snap at him, because something was obviously wrong, but he let it slide and just shifted closer to Eren, throwing one arm over his middle. He watched him in the darkness, Eren not making any move to close his eyes or settle in for sleep.

Figuring he just wasn’t tired, Levi ignored his weirdness and let his eyes stray to the bandages still wrapped tightly around Eren’s wrist. They were damp with sweat, and Levi thought about maybe changing them, but he didn’t know how bad the damage beneath it was and he didn’t want to cause any problems with infection by taking it off. He considered that leaving it on might also be bad, but Eren would likely know better than he would.

If nothing else, he could call Grisha in the morning and tell him to change the bandage. He didn’t have to say _why_  it needed changing.

“Dad says I’m lucky,” Eren whispered, making Levi’s gaze shift from the bandaged wound to his face. Eren was looking at his own wrist. Apparently he could see Levi better than he’d thought. “He says that Annie could’ve caused nerve damage, or severed tendons. I got lucky, because I can still move my hand with a limited amount of pain.”

“I didn’t see the damage before,” Levi admitted. “Did she cut off the mark?”

“No, but it’s warped. It’s going to scar over it weirdly.” Eren frowned. “I don’t think it’ll do anything to the bond, though. I don’t think that’s how this works. Guess we can ask that professor for more pages for Connie to translate, if we need to.”

“As long as you’re okay, who cares?” Levi was done with old rivalries and weird rituals. He just wanted to live in the present, with Eren. “Go to sleep.”

He wrapped his arm more securely around Eren, buried his face in his neck so he could rub his cheek against the underside of his chin, and closed his eyes.

* * *

Levi was accustomed to waking up in many weird and interesting ways. Being a Werewolf, he’d kind of gotten used to that, and had honestly thought he’d experienced most, if not all, different ways of waking up.

He was wrong.

A shout of absolute terror echoed through the room and had his eyes snapping open and his body reacting immediately at the threat of danger. He jerked into a seated position, claws out, fangs elongating, and body already beginning to shift a few muscles in anticipation of the change before he fully realized what had happened.

Turning to Eren, he saw him thrashing beside him, screaming at the top of his lungs, probably loud enough for the people down the road to hear him.

His eyes were still closed.

Suddenly, his hesitance when Levi had said they were going to bed made sense. Carla’s question made sense. Eren’s reluctance to sleep the night before that had kept him awake playing video games until five in the morning made sense.

Mikasa had said he’d been having nightmares. Levi just hadn’t realized how bad they were.

“Eren. Eren!” He forced the shift to stop, his bones groaning in protest to his movements, but he ignored the slight pain and forced the claws to retract, grabbing Eren by the shoulder and giving him a firm shake.

He didn’t wake, he just turned and punched at Levi, presumably perceiving the hand grabbing him as a threat. If he didn’t stop screaming soon, the police were liable to show up.

“Eren, wake up! Eren!” Shouting wouldn’t help, and he knew that even as he continued to do it, but he wasn’t sure what else to do. Grabbing Eren around the middle, he got an elbow to the chin, tasting blood in his mouth, but he ignored it and wrapped his arms around Eren from behind, trapping his arms so he’d stop flailing and pressing his lips to Eren’s temple.

“Eren, wake up,” he insisted in a calmer voice. He shushed him a few times, Eren’s legs beginning to stop kicking. “That’s it. You’re okay. It’s okay. Just wake up. Nothing is coming for you. You’re okay.” Eren’s heart was still beating erratically in his chest, his breathing laboured, but at least he’d stopped screaming and he wasn’t thrashing anymore. Levi loosened his hold slightly so that he wasn’t restricting his movements quite so much, but he didn’t let him go. He knew the exact moment Eren woke up, because his entire body stiffened, and his heart rate spiked.

Levi didn’t say anything, he just rearranged himself against the headboard, holding Eren against his chest, right arm wrapped around his middle while the left looped up under one armpit and clutched the opposite shoulder. He kept his lips pressed against his temple.

He felt angry at what had just happened. He was mad that Eren was reacting like this because of what he had gone through. If Levi knew of a spell to erase memories safely, he probably would ask for a way to get that done to Eren. But those didn’t exist. Magic always had a price. Annie was proof of that.

Levi listened to Eren’s heartbeat, waiting for it to return to a semi-normal pace. He didn’t let him go, but he kept his grip loose enough that Eren could pull free if he wanted to.

He didn’t.

Instead, Eren reached up with one shaky hand and closed it around Levi’s left forearm, holding onto it like a lifeline. The other hand dug blunt nails into Levi’s closest thigh.

Levi wanted to ask him if he was okay, but he knew that was a ridiculous question to ask, so he didn’t. He just held him more tightly now that Eren had made it clear he didn’t want to pull away and closed his eyes, pressing a kiss to his temple.

“You’re okay,” Levi promised him. “You’re okay. Nothing is ever going to touch you again.”

  
He didn’t care if he died protecting Eren. The next time something Supernatural came after him, Levi was going to decimate it before it had the chance to even _look_  at Eren.

This was unacceptable, and he was never letting Eren feel this level of fear ever again.

* * *

Eren had more nightmares as the night progressed, but Levi held him tightly every time and he woke up on his own. They didn’t talk about it when morning finally came, Eren looking more exhausted than Levi felt. He just made them breakfast and told Eren he would come by the store later before the other left.

He’d had to borrow a shirt since Levi had destroyed his other one. He was happy about that, because it would only help accentuate his scent on Eren’s skin.

He called Mikasa after that, mostly because he was angry she hadn’t warned him how bad the nightmares were, but also to make sure Eren would be okay if left alone. It was obvious from their conversation that she wanted to come home early, but that wouldn’t solve anything so Levi promised to take care of him and then hung up.

Levi went for tea with Carla that day, mostly to talk about Eren, but also to make sure she was doing okay. He’d noticed her gaze straying more often towards the mark on his wrist, and he could practically hear the question burning on her tongue, but she never asked anything so he didn’t offer anything in return. He was positive she now knew both his mark and Eren’s weren’t tattoos, but if she wasn’t willing to talk about it, neither was he.

The two of them spent a pleasant afternoon drinking tea and catching up after Levi’s extended disappearance. It became less pleasant when they started talking about Eren and his traumatic experience, but Levi made it clear all he wanted was what was best for Eren, and Carla seemed happy with that.

Near mid-afternoon, he went to see Eren at work and found Jean already there. Mikasa had called him after Levi’s call and he’d headed over to spend some bonding time with him. Apparently, though unsurprisingly, Jean was also having some nightmares and he and Eren had spent some time talking about it with each other. Levi felt guilty for not assuming Jean would be experiencing the same thing. He supposed all he had to go off of was Erwin’s experience, as well as Levi’s own brush with death. They’d both been fine with it, likely because very little phased them anymore after the lives they’d lived, but they really needed to remember that the people in Shiganshina weren’t like them. He’d known about the therapy with Oluo, but he hadn’t really known what it was about or how badly this entire ordeal had affected Jean. He’d taken the Werewolf thing in stride, so Levi had assumed he would take this in stride, too. Evidently, he’d been wrong.

He doubted Jean or Eren would be better any time soon, but he told Jean on his way out that he would be around if he needed anyone. Jean had thanked him, and admitted that he was grateful to have someone to talk to. They ended up having a short discussion about Oluo, since both Jean and Eren had sessions with him—he was kind enough to come out to Shiganshina for their sessions so they wouldn’t have to go out to Trost, so he usually did them back to back.

Levi had never been so thankful to have a member of the pack be a psychologist. It was evident that the therapy was helping, even if just one percent at a time.

Jean also advised him that he and Armin had planned a vacation away in a few weeks. He’d invited Eren and Mikasa, but both had declined. Eren’s excuse was that he wanted to stay in town in case Levi came back.

Now that he was back, it looked like he wasn’t eager to leave him.

Eren asked if he could head over to Levi’s again after work, to which Levi asked him why he was assuming he needed permission. He did suggest Eren go home first for a shower, a bandage change and some new clothes.

He also suggested Eren bring some clothes over, considering he had a key and pretty much lived there, so he may as well have some clothes there too. Levi immediately emptied out a drawer in his dresser the moment he got home in case Eren took him up on that.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Eren wearing his clothes, it was more that he worried about his parents slowly figuring out that Eren would leave with one of his shirts and come home with one of Levi’s. It wasn’t like his parents didn’t know what they were doing, but it went back to not wanting to think about it. Levi felt it’d be best not to rub it in their faces.

When he heard a car approaching, he turned and tried not to hurry for the door. He didn’t want to look _too_  eager. The closer he got, the more he realized it wasn’t Eren. The car didn’t sound familiar. It didn’t have the old clunky sound of Jean’s truck, and it definitely wasn’t Eren’s. He wasn’t particularly familiar with what Mikasa’s car sounded like, but he knew Erwin wasn’t going to come until the weekend, and they would likely be in his car.

Levi stopped at the bottom of the stairs, head cocked while he listened to someone stop the car at the top of the hill. The engine turned off and a door opened, gravel crunching beneath a pair of shoes before the door closed once more. He heard a slow exhale, then footsteps neared his door. They climbed the stairs to the porch, walked two steps to the door, and he heard a loud knock.

Not wanting to seem too quick, Levi waited exactly five seconds before moving forward through the hallway into the entrance, then he opened his front door.

A man he’d never seen before was standing on his porch, and even with the space between them, Levi could smell the sweat on him. His heart also seemed to be beating double-time, but his face remained perfectly neutral, as if he weren’t terrified. It would’ve fooled a human, but Levi wasn’t human.

He had greying brown hair, blue eyes, and a familiar scent beneath the smell of fear-induced sweat. Levi was positive he didn’t know him, but he seemed strangely familiar.

“Can I help you?” he asked, wanting him to leave before Eren showed up.

“I was hoping you could,” the man said, his voice deep and a little irritating. Levi didn’t know why, but he didn’t like him at all. “My name is Andrew Leonhart.”

Levi was sure that should mean something to him, but it didn’t, so he just kept staring at the man.

There was an uncomfortable shift of his weight, then he let out a slow breath. “I’m Annie’s father.”

He moved before even realizing that he had done so. He closed the distance quickly, one hand at the man’s throat and putting all his weight against him, knocking them both to the ground. Levi felt his fangs beginning to descend and he knew his claws were likely breaking the sensitive skin of the man’s neck, but he didn’t care. He just pressed his full weight down, waiting for an excuse to tear this guy limb from limb. He could feel some of his muscles beginning to shift, preparing for the full change, but he forced himself not to go that far. It would give the man time to escape, or to kill him himself.

“What are you doing here?” Levi asked, well aware of the fact that the man had made no move whatsoever to stop him. He’d just let himself be tackled and was now lying motionless while Levi’s hand tightened around his throat.

“I came because of my daughter.”

“To kill me?”

“To apologize.”

That hadn’t been what Levi had been expecting. It startled him so much that he shifted back completely, staring down at the man lying beneath him. He looked terrified, but he hadn’t moved an inch the entire time. If he had any wolfsbane on him, Levi would’ve smelled it. If he had any silver on him, Levi was sure he would’ve _felt_  it by now. People didn’t usually let themselves be manhandled like this if they had a weapon on them they were looking to use.

Despite his better judgement, Levi slowly straightened and stood, moving away from the man. He took a few steps backwards so he was inside his house again, standing close to the door so he could slam it if he was attacked.

“What are you doing here?” Levi asked again, watching the man wince while standing and rubbing at his throat. There was no blood, meaning he hadn’t been scratched, but Levi was sure there would be bruising around his neck.

“I heard Annie tried to kill you. I wish there were words I could use to express how deeply sorry I am for everything that happened.”

“You’ve apologized. Now get out.”

Andrew shifted his weight uncomfortably, avoiding Levi’s eye. Not an unusual reaction for someone who’d just met him, but the way he’d been staring earlier suggested this man had encountered many Werewolves before.

“I was hoping I could speak to Eren.”

“He’s not here.”

“I know, he’s at work.” He rubbed his palms along his jeans, probably wiping away the sweat Levi could still smell. “His family won’t allow me near him, and I understand. I do. All I want is five minutes with him. Just five minutes. I felt he would be more receptive if perhaps you were in the room with him.”

Levi said nothing, watching him, waiting to see if he could make him uncomfortable enough to leave.

The silence stretched on for almost five minutes before Andrew finally broke it, his eyes shifting to Levi’s wrist.

“Annie said you were bound. I’ve never seen a mark on anyone outside the Coven bloodlines before.”

“Supernatural.” Levi’s tone suggested he thought very little of this man, which was accurate.

“Of course. Werewolf. I should’ve guessed, given Annie’s.” Andrew rubbed at his jaw slightly, eyes still on the mark. “I wasn’t aware anyone from the Zegrath bloodline still lived. Had I known what Annie was doing sooner, I’d have—”

“What?” Levi interrupted darkly. “Stopped her?”

Andrew stared at him for a moment, hand dropping from his face. “I can appreciate why you’re hostile towards me, but I assure you, I had no idea what my daughter was planning. She only ever spoke of binding with Eren, and I knew she and him had been fighting of late, but I didn’t realize how serious it was. Had I known she was going to attempt the second ritual, I’d have stopped her.”

“Power corrupts,” Levi snapped. “You don’t honestly think I’d believe a pig Caster like you would stop her, do you?”

“It’s 2017,” Andrew said dryly, “you don’t just go around murdering people. Especially not for power. Casters are a dying breed. Look at Eren and his mother. Both are descendants of the most powerful Caster family in the region and neither of them have any abilities. Even if Annie had completed the ritual, there is very little guarantee she would’ve gained much power. I approved of her desire to bind with him, but if death was the only option to gain it, I would have ensured she knew we didn’t follow those methods anymore.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have told her the story in the first place,” Levi said.

“It’s part of our history. I didn’t expect her to take it so seriously.”

Levi tilted his head slightly, hearing a car approaching. This one he recognized, and he cursed the fact that he hadn’t gotten this man to leave. Eren was on his way up, and he rounded the corner before Levi could think of a way to get rid of Mr. Leonhart.

Eren’s truck stopped on the road, a good distance from the front door where Levi and Andrew were speaking. Even from where he stood, Levi could hear Eren’s heart pounding in his chest, could hear his breathing pick up. That was bad, because normally from this distance, he shouldn’t have been able to. Either Levi was just incredibly in tune with Eren, or having Andrew here was doing very little to improve Eren’s already damaged psyche.

“He’s terrified of you,” Levi all but snarled, turning his dark gaze back to Andrew, who had turned to see who was coming. “If you go near him, I’ll tear you to pieces.”

“I mean him no harm,” Andrew insisted sharply, turning back to glare at Levi. “I just want to apologize.”

“Then you can do it from a safe distance.”

Levi pushed past Andrew and jumped down the porch steps. He hurried towards Eren’s truck before the moron panicked and reversed right into a tree. Reaching the driver’s side door, he wrenched it open, Eren jumping, as if not even noticing he’d reached him. He probably hadn’t, his gaze seemed to have been locked on Andrew since he’d stopped the truck.

“Are you okay?”

It was a stupid question, and he knew it, but he had to ask anyway. Eren’s knuckles were white from his death grip around the steering wheel, but despite how pale his face was, his eyes burned, as if he wanted to exit the truck and pummel Mr. Leonhart to death.

Levi wouldn’t stop him.

“He says he wants to apologize. I don’t know that he’ll leave until he has the opportunity. Unless you want to call the police.” Levi had no problems calling the cops.

“We have a restraining order,” Eren said, eyes shooting back to the man on the porch. “He isn’t supposed to be anywhere near me.”

“I’ll make him leave, then.”

He started to slam the truck door but Eren reached out one hand as if to stop him. “Wait.”

Levi stared at him while Eren shifted his gaze back to Andrew. He clenched his jaw, then turned back to Levi. “Let me park. Is he armed?”

“You won’t have to worry about finding out, because I’ll tear his throat out with my teeth if he gets anywhere near you.”

Eren made a face, likely not pleased with that visual, but he nodded once and Levi slammed the door shut. Moving back for the porch, Eren drove forward slowly to park in the grass where he always did. It seemed to take him a few seconds to feel like he’d parked _just_  right, because he kept reversing and advancing. Levi knew he was just stalling, but he didn’t blame him.

The fact that he wanted to come out and face the father of the girl who’d tried to kill him was impressive enough. Levi wasn’t going to mock him for being scared to do it.

He waited for Eren at the edge of the house, watching him turn off the car and climb out of the truck. When he approached him, Levi turned and moved first, wanting to keep himself between Eren and Andrew. It occurred to him that he didn’t feel any panic rising, so that was marginally comforting, but the steadily increasing beat of Eren’s heart was making him feel on edge. He just wanted to murder this guy and whisk Eren into the house, but murder was bad so he shouldn’t do that.

Levi stopped at the bottom of the porch steps, feeling Eren’s fingers in the back of his shirt. He stood and stared up at Andrew, who was looking past him at Eren.

“Eren,” he said.

While he didn’t know what Eren had done behind him, he had obviously made some sign of acknowledgement, because Andrew moved a step closer. Levi shifted his weight so he was fully in front of Eren and the older man stopped.

“I know I’m the last person you want to see right now. I know nothing I say can take back what Annie did, but I just wanted you to know that I am truly sorry for everything that happened. Had I known what she was planning, I would’ve stopped her. I’m sorry that I didn’t realize it when your friends began to go missing, and I’m sorry that I failed her as a father, because I could’ve saved her from this horrible outcome.”

Levi felt angry at those last words. It made his apology worthless. He wasn’t sorry for what had happened to Eren, he was sorry for what had happened to his daughter because of what she had done _to_  Eren. That seriously pissed him off, and he was about to speak when Eren did first.

“Thank you for your words, but I don’t accept your apology. I don’t plan to ever see you again after the trial. Don’t come again, or I’ll call the cops. And leave Jean’s family alone, they’ve been through enough.”

Andrew seemed to have expected this answer because he let out a small sigh, nodded once, and then moved down the porch steps. Levi held one arm out behind himself, forcing Eren back a few steps to ensure the man didn’t try anything.

He didn’t. He just moved past them both and headed for his car. He paused before entering it, turning to look at them both.

“I know you might not believe me, but Annie truly did care for you.”

“You don’t try to kill someone you care about,” Levi snapped, eyes flashing.

Andrew looked like he wanted to say something, but he obviously recognized defeat when experiencing it, so he entered the car, started it, and then paused for only a moment before he drove away.

Levi waited until he couldn’t hear the vehicle anymore, Eren silent and motionless behind him. Once he was sure he was gone, he turned to Eren and reached for his hand. When his closed around Eren’s, he squeezed once, then tugged, prompting him to start moving.

“My stuff,” Eren said numbly.

“We can get it later.”

“Okay.”

Levi lead Eren into the house and shut the door. He had a feeling there would be a lot of nightmares tonight.

* * *

Jean let out a loud snort at the sound of his phone going off, waking him from his sleep. Sitting up at his desk, he let out a groan and rubbed at his face, realizing it was probably a good thing he’d gotten woken up, considering his neck was killing him and he didn’t want to have back problems early in life.

Pulling his phone closer, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and tapped the screen, frowning at the unknown number that had texted him. It didn’t show more than a few words, so he unlocked his phone and opened the message so he could read it in its entirety.

**[Unknown Number]**  
Good evening, Jean. I hope I didn’t disturb you, I know it’s quite late.

Frowning, because the full message didn’t give him any more information than the preview, he typed up a response.

**[Jean]**  
who is this........?

He watched his phone, waiting for a response, and it came almost instantly.

**[Unknown Number]**  
Of course, my apologies. This is Erwin, I got your number from Mikasa. I hope that’s all right.

Jean stared down at the words, a little surprised to see them. He didn’t know why the pack leader was texting him, but he hoped it wasn’t for anything bad.

**[Jean]**  
that’s fine. what’s up? how’re things? everything okay?  
**[Jean]**  
pls dont tell me something’s coming to town, i can’t afford to move.....

If Erwin was texting him because something was happening with Eren again, Jean was grabbing him, shoving him in a bunker, and leaving him there. He already wasn’t faring well from the _last_  bad thing to happen to Eren, he really didn’t think his parents could afford more therapy.

Not that he was actually paying for therapy... His parents had told him that Oluo refused to take payment, so either Levi or someone else was paying for it, or the pack was somehow recognizing Eren and Jean as part of their own and Oluo was doing it for free. Both were nice options.

**[Unknown Number]**  
No, no. Nothing is heading for Shiganshina, that I am aware of.  
**[Unknown Number]**  
Mikasa just mentioned you would be leaving town soon.  
**[Unknown Number]**  
I just wanted to confirm when that would be.

Jean stared at the message, squinting suspiciously. Why was Erwin asking him when he would be leaving town? Was this stemming from his pack leader authority to terminate people who knew their secret? Jean had just survived one Supernatural showdown, he didn’t want to have to fight through another one.

**[Jean]**  
why......?  
**[Jean]**  
look man i wont tell anyone  
**[Jean]**  
secret’s safe w/ me  
**[Jean]**  
can’t promise connie and sasha won’t say anything  
**[Jean]**  
but i’m good, promise

**[Unknown Number]**  
Your experience in that warehouse must have made you paranoid, Jean.  
**[Unknown Number]**  
I’ll see you soon.

Jean’s heart thudded painfully in his chest.

**[Jean]**  
what does that mean???  
**[Jean]**  
erwin what does that mean?!?!?!?!?!  
**[Jean]**  
dude!!!!!

He received no response for a long while and, heart slamming against his ribs, he opened another text message.

**[Jean]**  
dude! erwin’s out to get me!

Jean had to give his friend credit, because he knew Eren was with Levi, but he still responded within half a minute.

**[Eren]**  
what? erwin isn’t out to get anyone

**[Jean]**  
he is! he got my number off your sister and texted to ask when i was going away!  
**[Jean]**  
why else would he do that?!?!?!?!?!?!  
**[Jean]**  
i didn’t answer, and then he goes ‘SEE YOU SOON’  
**[Jean]**  
all ominous-like!

**[Eren]**  
oh...

**[Jean]**  
oh?????

**[Eren]**  
he just asked me when you were going on vacation...  
**[Eren]**  
guess that’s why

**[Jean]**  
TRAITOR!  
**[Jean]**  
he’s gonna come murder me!!!!!

Jean winced the second the message sent, realizing he shouldn’t be saying things like that to someone who had legitimately almost been murdered. He didn’t dwell on it though, biting his thumbnail while he waited for a response, because for all he knew, Erwin _was_  coming to kill him!

**[Eren]**  
jean, no one is coming to kill you  
**[Eren]**  
and even if he was, i wouldn’t let him. you’re my bro, i got your back, same as you’ve got mine.  
**[Eren]**  
put that over-active imagination away and go to sleep.

Jean didn’t feel comforted by his words, but he _did_  feel touched. Hearing Eren would always have his back reminded him that no matter what bullshit they went through, they would always have each other.

Eren really was his best friend.

**[Jean]**  
fine. if erwin shows up, what should i do until you get here to save me?

**[Eren]**  
piss your pants again  
**[Eren]**  
maybe it’ll knock him out  
**[Eren]**  
good night jean.

Jean took it back.

Eren was an asshole. 


	25. Chapter Twenty-Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

Jean felt like his database was coming along remarkably well for someone who hadn’t known the Supernatural world existed until recently. And when factoring in that he’d been kidnapped and chained up in a warehouse for a number of weeks, that definitely cut into his research time, so he was impressive, if he did say so himself.

He’d also come up with the perfect cover for whenever he couldn’t get his back to a wall in Hannes’ shop. He wanted to write a book. There. Problem solved. It’d worked on a lot of people so far, though he was a little worried about Pixis because he had shown way too much interest and now Jean was worried he would _actually_  have to write a book.

He was sitting near the back corner, sipping at his coffee while trying to figure out if SlenderMan was real or not when someone slammed their hands on the table across from him and he promptly inhaled the sip he was taking.

“Dude, what are the chances of Nifa being a Succubus?” Connie asked, clearly unconcerned with Jean choking to death over the coffee he’d inhaled. “Because Sasha and I were talking about it last night, and there’s some crazy signs and I’m pretty sure she’s out to get people.”

Getting his breathing back under control, no thanks to Connie, Jean coughed roughly and looked up in time for Sasha to join her friend, slurping annoyingly on a frozen coffee drink.

“You might want to keep things like that to yourself,” Jean said, voice rough and still patting on his own chest to make sure he wasn’t about to suffocate. Death by coffee, it wasn’t a good way to go. “Erwin’s going to come kill us soon for knowing his secret, so maybe don’t piss off any other Supernatural beings in the area. They could make good allies.”

Sasha and Connie shared a confused look. “What do you mean Erwin’s coming to kill us?” Connie asked.

“Yeah, Levi said he talked to the pack leaders and they all agreed we were fine. We saved Werewolves and a Caster, so we’re considered Supernatural allies to the packs,” Sasha said quietly, straightening proudly. She then promptly chased the straw of her drink with her tongue. Jean was embarrassed to know her.

“Well, when did this happen, because Erwin texted me last night and made it sound like I was going to die.”

“Levi told us yesterday,” Connie said, frowning in confusion. “Are you sure you’re not just exaggerating?”

Jean stared at them until they left, whispering to each other about Jean having lost his mind. Jean hadn’t lost his mind, okay! Erwin was out to get him and he was going to prove it!

Pulling his phone out, he opened up his texts with Erwin from the night before and hastily typed out another message.

**[Jean]**  
so are you coming to kill me?  
 **[Jean]**  
or am i apparently safe from death?  
 **[Jean]**  
the pack leaders agreed i wasn’t a threat or...?

He’d gotten part-way through writing out a section on SlenderMan just in case he _did_  exist before his phone finally went off. Checking who it was from, he immediately opened the message to read it in full.

**[Erwin]**  
Why did you think I was coming to kill you?  
 **[Erwin]**  
As I said, that time in the warehouse must have made you paranoid.   
**[Erwin]**  
Your knowledge of our secret is not deemed a threat, given everything that occurred.   
**[Erwin]**  
It took some convincing, but you, Armin and Eren are all guaranteed safety. Mikasa will not allow any harm to come to Armin, Levi will ensure nothing happens to Eren, and I am in your debt so you will always be protected.   
**[Erwin]**  
Mike seems fond of Connie and Sasha, though how strong of a bond he has with them is still under review. He may or may not protect them should they cause problems.   
**[Erwin]**  
Perhaps it would be best you keep them out of trouble as much as possible.

**[Jean]**  
i’m not their sitter  
 **[Jean]**  
but thanks for scaring the shit outta me yesterday  
 **[Jean]**  
real nice

He paused, staring at his messages, and debated asking before deciding he’d really rather know.

**[Jean]**  
hey is slenderman real?

These were important things that Jean needed to know. And now that he had someone less grumpy than Levi to ask, well, he wasn’t one to look a gifthorse in the mouth.

* * *

The rest of the week was difficult for both Eren and Levi. Eren woke up terrified almost all the time, and as soon as he realized he was safe, he didn’t know whether to feel embarrassed or relieved at having Levi there, holding him tightly and whispering that he was okay and it was over.

He appreciated the gesture, but he thought he appreciated it more because it was Levi doing it. He’d seen Levi’s kinder side before, but this was unknown territory, and waking up from a nightmare consistently with Levi holding him and whispering comforting words in his ear meant more to him than he could voice.

The week seemed to pass slowly. Eren felt like every day stretched to an almost impossible degree, giving him more hours of the day to be afraid. He knew Annie was locked away, and he knew that Levi would keep him safe, but he still found himself afraid when he was alone for even a moment. He found his hands shaking when he tried to count down the till at the end of each day, and he worried every time he saw Levi drinking tea.

When the weekend came around, he was exhausted, and he wanted nothing more than to just curl up on Levi’s couch with him and sleep through whatever movie they were going to watch. When he arrived at Levi’s with every intention of doing that after work on Sunday, he felt his heart sink when he opened the door to the Werewolf setting the large dining table. The disappointment lasted only a moment, because he remembered afterwards that Mikasa would be coming by for it, and he hadn’t seen her in what felt like forever. It almost made up for the fact that he would be missing out on cuddles and sleep.

Then again, he was sure Levi would like him to be awake, for once. Eren tended to sleep as much as possible now that he had an anchor because he didn’t actually sleep enough. Nightmares plagued him every time he shut his eyes, so while it looked like he slept a lot, he truly didn’t. Some days he didn’t know how he was still functioning.

“Did you actually _make_  dinner?” Eren asked when he walked into the kitchen after Levi.

“Don’t sound so surprised, I’ve made you food before,” Levi insisted, seeming annoyed.

Eren just grinned at him and tried to stick a finger in the mashed potatoes. He received a very hard thwack with a wooden spoon. Werewolves really needed to remember they were stronger than normal people, because Eren was sure that was going to bruise.

When Levi stilled and cocked his head, Eren knew that meant someone was coming and he grinned before turning and rushing to the door, throwing it open in time to see a car coming around the bend and over onto the grass beside his truck so it could park.

Mikasa was out of the car before it had fully stopped. She didn’t run, but she was walking extremely quickly. Eren didn’t bother, he just ran for her, grinning from ear to ear and throwing his arms around her when he reached her.

She buried her face in his chest and he felt her hands clenching tightly in the material of his shirt. They had never been apart for this long before. Had he not been staying with Levi on a daily basis, he felt like it would’ve been harder on him. He was sad Mikasa hadn’t felt comfort in Erwin and Hanji’s presence, and it wasn’t like they hadn’t spoken at least once a day.

“How are you?” he asked with a smile, pulling away and grinning at her. “How’ve you been? You look great.”

“Thanks,” she said with a small smile. “It’s been hard. Getting used to everything is... challenging.”

“But,” Erwin said, appearing beside her and slapping a hand onto her shoulder, “she’s been doing great. Much better than Hanji.”

“I’m not a born Werewolf,” the other insisted while hurrying into the house. “Where’s my grumpy little elf?”

“Kitchen.”

Even without Werewolf hearing, Eren heard the cursing and death threats from outside. He just laughed and kept one arm wrapped around Mikasa while leading the way into the house. Erwin followed them and shut the door once they’d all entered.

“You smell,” Mikasa commented when they headed into the dining room, making a face.

“What? I showered this morning!” Eren lifted one arm to sniff himself, but caught sight of the suppressed smirk on Erwin’s face, the blond man pointedly avoiding his gaze.

“No, I mean, you smell like Levi.” Eren didn’t know why, they hadn’t had sex recently. Mikasa just turned to Erwin. “My sense of smell wasn’t as good before, but he definitely smells like Levi. Is he scent-marking him?”

“Scent-what?” Eren asked, hearing shouts and curses from the kitchen.

“A conversation for you to have with Levi some other time,” Erwin insisted with a smile. “Food smells good. I’m starving. It’s been a long drive.”

Taking the hint, Eren pulled away from Mikasa to head towards the back of the house. Levi was attempting to strangle Hanji when Eren wandered into the kitchen to help get the food, but he didn’t concern himself with that and just grabbed the closest platters before heading back out into the dining room. As much as Levi threatened Hanji and insisted they were annoying, it wasn’t exactly a secret that he cared about them a lot.

Eren was really glad they’d all come out of this relatively unscathed. Erwin still looked a little gaunt, but he seemed better. He’d been missing longer than anyone else, and even Jean still wasn’t at full strength yet, so it wasn’t surprising. Still drank way too much coffee, though. Hannes was probably sobbing in relief at his return to help pay his mortgage.

When Eren took a seat beside Mikasa, she touched his hand lightly, then turned it over so she could look at his wrist. He didn’t know what she was looking at, since it was still bandaged, but she rubbed her thumb lightly over his palm before lifting her hand to run it along his cheek and side of his neck, then pulled her hand back. The action was weird, and very similar to Levi’s, but he didn’t comment on it. He figured she was just making sure he was still doing okay, which he was.

Mostly. Aside from the nightmares, but he was sure those would go away eventually. He hoped more than anything that they went away for Jean, because he’d gotten dragged into this and Eren hated that he was suffering just because they were friends.

“How’s everyone doing?” Erwin asked when they’d all sat down with the food. Hanji had surprisingly survived their throttling in the kitchen.

Eren had opened his mouth to answer when he jumped because Levi had grabbed his face and was rubbing his hands all over his cheeks and neck, looking past Eren to glare at Mikasa. She was glaring right back until Levi’s hands left his skin.

Sitting motionless for a second, Eren waited to see if anything else would happen, not at all understanding what the fuck was going on. When it became clear no one else was going to molest his face with their hands, he looked over at Erwin to answer his question, seeing him trying to hide a smile behind the wine glass he was sipping at.

“Good,” Eren said slowly, reaching out for the carrots and trying to shake off the weirdness of what had just happened. He served himself, then handed the dish over to Mikasa. “You know, managing. As you know, Jean and Armin are going away soon to get some distance.”

“Is Jean doing all right?” Erwin asked. “I haven’t seen him since everything that happened. He was instrumental in my survival so I would like the opportunity to thank him. He saved my life. It would be nice if I could drop by and see him before heading back to Trost.”

“Uh, yeah,” Eren said, a little startled at hearing that. He couldn’t help but wonder about Erwin and Jean’s conversation considering Jean seemed convinced a few days ago that Erwin was out to get him. Eren hadn’t heard anything about it since then so maybe Erwin had clarified? “He’s all right. Just, you know, nightmares but that’s—par for the course.” Eren forced a smile, but he saw Erwin shoot a glance at Levi, as if silently asking him if everything was okay.

Clearing his throat uncomfortably, Eren continued talking about the others and how they were doing, then let Hanji take over to talk about everything that had been happening in Trost. There had been some problems with territory, which Eren didn’t understand, but all Erwin said was that everything that had been taken over had been reclaimed and everyone was fully aware that his pack was cohesive and stronger than ever. Eren just nodded like he understood what that meant.

He did like hearing about how Mikasa was improving, though, and she even meshed well with the other wolves in the pack. The first full moon had been difficult, but Eren had been around for enough transformations to know that would be the case.

“I’m really sorry,” he said to Mikasa, then realized he should be apologizing to everyone at the table. “I’m sorry about what happened, and how you were all involved because of me. I’m sorry you ended up turning into a Werewolf,” he said to Mikasa.

“None of this is your fault, Eren,” Erwin said with a kind smile. “You didn’t ask for this. And nobody got hurt, that’s the important thing.”

“ _You_  got hurt, you shitstain,” Levi snapped. “And so did Eren.”

“Nobody _died_ ,” Erwin amended, “and that’s the important thing.”

“How are the preparations for the trial going?” Hanji asked, seeming a little too interested. They winced, suggesting someone had kicked them, but Eren was used to the topic. It was something that came up almost daily, since he went home every day for at least a little bit, and his parents were very vocal about it.

“I’m meeting the lawyer on Tuesday again to go over some items for the case. It’s likely Annie, Bert and Reiner will get away with the insanity plea, but they’ll be going to a high security institute either way.” He shrugged like it was no big deal that someone he’d known most of his life would be locked away somewhere far, _far_  away. “Everyone says it’s a pretty open/close case. Annie, Bert and Reiner aren’t denying what they did, so I think the trial’s more of a ‘how severe are we going to sentence them?’ kind of deal.”

Erwin hummed in agreement before Hanji could say anything else and promptly moved the subject away, obviously feeling this wasn’t a dinner-appropriate conversation.

They spent the rest of dinner and dessert discussing how everyone was doing and what the plans were for the next few months. Levi had rejected another book tour, which Erwin was giving him grief about, but he didn’t seem to care. Eren was secretly glad he wasn’t going anywhere, and a part of him suspected it may be because of him, considering he’d apparently been spoken to only a week ago.

He knew he should feel bad that he was turning down the opportunity, but he felt slightly better when Erwin razzed him for always trying to talk his way out of book tours. Apparently he’d only gone on one since he’d become a big name in the industry.

When they moved into the living room for coffee, Eren could feel his exhaustion creeping up and yawned more than he usually did. Levi seemed to notice, because he shifted back on the couch, holding his tea cup by the rim with one hand and glared at Erwin.

“So your reason for coming here was because you had something you wanted to talk about. Spit it out and leave, your presence pisses me off.”

Erwin, who had looked perfectly jovial a moment ago, suddenly turned serious. Eren glanced at Hanji and noticed they seemed visibly uncomfortable. He’d never seen them react like this when being told to leave before, so he knew it wasn’t about that.

Erwin leaned forward to set his coffee down, then looked at Eren. It made all the blood drain from him face, and he was positive he was about to receive some bad news.

“Eren. I’d like to have a moment alone with you, if I may.”

He felt Levi stiffen beside him and even Mikasa looked worried, seated in the armchair beside the couch. Erwin could obviously sense the tension because he raised both hands in a placating gesture, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“This is nothing bad, I promise. I just need a moment with Eren.” He stood and smiled down at him, motioning the door. Eren hesitated for the briefest of moments, then stood and moved to exit the house, Erwin following and shutting the door behind him.

When the Werewolf headed towards his car, Eren did the same, the two of them climbing into it and Erwin starting the car before turning it around and heading away from Levi’s house. They didn’t go far, the car stopping on the shoulder at the bottom of the hill and Erwin turning the radio on. He didn’t blare it, but he turned the volume up loud enough for it to be audible enough to sing to.

“Sorry about that. Werewolf hearing, you understand. Mikasa and Levi are territorial of you, so I needed a moment alone so we could speak.”

“Is this about the weird hand rubbing thing that happened at dinner?”

Erwin’s lip twitched, as if he were about to smile, but he just shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. That’s something you’ll need to address with Levi.”

Eren shrugged. “Okay. So what’s up?” His face fell the second the words left him. “Please don’t tell me there’s some weird leprechaun in the area looking to suck out my bone marrow or something.”

The Werewolf actually _did_  laugh at that, shaking his head and promising that Eren’s bone marrow was safe, as far as he could tell. Eren relaxed, and motioned for Erwin to speak before any more crazy ideas hit him.

Calming down after the ridiculous question, Erwin’s face turned serious and he shifted in his seat so he was facing Eren. When he began to speak, he kept his voice low and calm, reaching out one hand to place it atop Eren’s while he explained what he needed to tell him. The longer he spoke, the wider Eren’s eyes became and Erwin’s hand on his tightened when it was clear that he was beginning to panic.

“I can’t,” Eren insisted once Erwin had finished. “What are you—no! No, I can’t do that!”

“Eren.” Erwin’s hand tightened a little too much, and he winced. The Werewolf seemed to notice because he loosened his grip. “Eren, I understand this is difficult for you, but you’re the only person who can do this. I have tried everything I can to make this work favourably, but no matter what I think of, this is the only option that makes sense. I know how hard this is for you, but you have to understand, I’m just trying to keep my pack from crumbling.”

Eren thought he was going to have a panic attack. He could feel his chest clenching and his heart rate accelerating, and apparently Erwin could, as well, because he shifted his hand to rub at Eren’s shoulder, instructing him to calm down and just breathe.

Clenching his eyes shut, he struggled to obey. He knew he was being selfish in that moment, rejecting Erwin’s words and insisting he wouldn’t do it. He knew it wasn’t fair, and that he was being childish, but he couldn’t help it.

This was... no. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t _do_  this! How was he supposed to... Did Erwin even know how fucking _hard_  this would be? Impossible, even?

How unfair it was?

When he’d calmed down enough to open his eyes and look back at Erwin, he realized that, yes, Erwin _did_  understand. He looked sad, and visibly upset, but he evidently needed Eren to help him with this. He needed support in this decision and, as much as it made bile rise in his throat, Eren was it.

Hands shaking, Eren clenched them into fists and looked down into his lap, saying nothing but nodding once jerkily. Erwin’s hand tightened on his shoulder.

“Thank you, Eren.”

The hand left him and returned to the steering wheel, Erwin shifting back into drive and turning around so they could head back up the hill. When they reached the house, the other three Werewolves were outside. Levi was pacing back and forth on the porch and Mikasa was sitting on the bottom step. She stood when the vehicle moved to park beside Eren’s truck once more.

“What did you do? What happened?!” Levi demanded, vaulting over the railing and landing silently on the grass before rushing forward. Mikasa was right behind him, the two of them reaching Eren when he’d barely shut the door.

“Eren, are you okay?” Levi’s hands were on his face again, trying to catch his eye but he avoided his gaze, feeling sick.

Shit. He didn’t want to do this. _Shit_.

“I’m fine,” he promised, reaching up for Levi’s wrists and pulling his hands away. “We’ll talk later, okay?” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to Levi’s lightly, then sidestepped him and held his hand out to Mikasa. “Come on. I need to talk to you.”

She looked startled, gaze shifting to Eren’s hand, then his face, then past him to presumably look at Levi.

“Come Levi.” Erwin moved up behind Eren, patting his friend on the shoulder. “We need to get inside. I need to talk to you.”

“What did you do?” Levi snapped. Eren heard more than saw Levi slap Erwin’s hand away. “What did you say to him?”

“Levi, we just need to talk,” Hanji insisted, still on the porch by the front door. “Come inside, it’s okay.”

“This doesn’t look okay,” Mikasa said slowly, siding with Levi. “Eren, what happened?”

“Look,” Eren insisted, feeling his stomach roll and turning to briefly look at Levi, “I promise it’ll be okay. I’m coming back. I’ll be here tonight, in bed with you, like always. I just need to talk to Mikasa, and Erwin needs to talk to you.”

Levi said nothing for a moment, then he moved forward and reached out both hands, dragging them roughly across Eren’s cheeks, down the sides of his neck, across his throat, and then moving to slide down his arms. It wasn’t until Eren heard the soft sound of annoyance from Mikasa that he suddenly—stupidly—clued in to what the fuck Levi was doing.

To what Levi _had_  been doing for months, even before Eren had found out he was a Werewolf.

Holy shit.

Holy _shit_!

He’d thought people would only smell Levi on him after sex, but apparently Levi had been doing this to him for _months_ , and Eren hadn’t even known! That was a little more territorial than Eren liked, if he was honest.

“You better come back,” Levi said before Eren could say anything about it. “Or I’ll hunt you down.”

“I’m coming back,” he promised, shoving aside the discovery to discuss later and giving Levi another short kiss. He turned then and held his hand out to Mikasa. She took it hesitantly, glancing at Erwin and Levi, then allowed Eren to lead her towards his truck. They climbed in, the engine starting with the push of a button, and then Eren pulled away from the house. He drove down the hill, trying to ensure he kept his breathing even, hands clenching and unclenching around the steering wheel.

“What happened?” Mikasa asked. He could feel her eyes on him, but he didn’t respond. He just shook his head once and kept driving in silence. When he finally stopped, they were in front of Hannes’.

“I’ll be right back. Wait here.”

Eren didn’t wait for her to respond, he just exited the vehicle and headed inside. Jean was sitting at one of the tables, typing away at his computer. He waved at Eren and opened his mouth to speak, grin on his face, but Eren just shook his head at him and headed for the counter to order two coffees.

He should’ve known that wouldn’t fly, because Jean was at his side instantly, looking worried.

“What’s up? What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

“Not really,” he admitted quietly, handing over his money and moving to stand at the end of the counter to wait for the drinks.

“Eren.” Jean grabbed his arm, forcing him to face him. “Dude. It’s me. What’s wrong?”

Eren’s eyes shifted to the door and Jean followed his gaze. He seemed to understand the second he saw Mikasa, looking back at Eren. Evidently he couldn’t say anything, because Mikasa could still hear him, and he was glad Jean had caught on to that.

“Thanks, Jean. I’ll talk to you later, okay?” he said, grabbing the coffees when they were set on the counter and then heading for the door.

Jean didn’t try to follow, but he could tell he was worried. He hated that Jean was worried, it wasn’t fair to him. But this was something he had to talk to Mikasa about first. Then, and only then, could he speak to anyone else.

When he reached the truck, Mikasa leaned over to push open the driver’s side door, just like she had the last time they’d done this. Except this time, they wouldn’t be heading to the store, so once he’d handed her the drink and climbed in, he turned to her and let out a small breath, trying to figure out how to even start.

It wasn’t like he could dive into this with her the way Erwin had with him. He had to have more tact than that.

“Eren.” He lifted his gaze to Mikasa’s, and saw her examining his face. She looked extremely worried. “What’s going on?”

“Okay,” Eren said quietly, looking back down at his coffee and picking at the lid to stall. “Okay. Sorry, I just... need a minute to figure out how to start.”

“Start what?” she asked, voice sounding tight.

Eren let out another breath, cleared his throat, then looked up at Mikasa. “You know how—when Levi moved here, you were looking into his background?”

She tensed instantly, but nodded.

“Well, while we were trying to do that, Erwin was doing the same with you. The possibility of you being related to Levi was something apparently all parties shared, and while Erwin was doing it moreso because of the Werewolf possibility, he actually found something that we didn’t.”

Mikasa’s back had straightened, eyes wide, and she was nodding encouragingly when he paused, silently urging him to keep going.

He winced, looking down once more. “I’m really sorry to be bringing this up, but—Erwin found out what happened to your parents.” He swallowed hard and reached out for her hand, afraid to look at her face. She was still as a statue, but he curled his fingers around her hand and squeezed tightly. “I don’t know if anyone told mom and dad about it, but while he was digging into your history, he found out about your parents, and what had become of them.”

Licking his lips, Eren started speaking faster, wanting to get it all out as quickly as possible, as if trying to rip off a bandaid.

“When your father was in university, he met a woman. She was beautiful and amazing, and he fell in love with her. They were together for a few years, but as time progressed, she became a little... unstable. She became obsessive and threatened to hurt herself, or him, if he tried to leave her. When he tried to get her help, it backfired and she became more obsessive. He ended up dropping out of school and moving away after his second failed attempt at getting her help. He didn’t want her to hurt herself, and I guess he figured if he just left, she would forget about him and she would have no one to threaten anymore.” He winced and steeled himself before speaking again. “He didn’t know she was pregnant when he left.”

Mikasa’s fingers finally curled themselves around Eren’s, hand tightening almost painfully around his, but he kept his eyes locked on their linked hands.

“Your father moved back home. Here, Shiganshina. He finished school online, and it was while he was looking for a local job that he met your mother. They got together, got married, and had you.” He chanced a glance up at her face, but she was still staring at him with that wide-eyed expression she had been looking at him with since he’d last looked at her.

He looked back down at their linked hands.

“You went on a family trip with your parents one year, probably close to the day everything went wrong. The three of you went to Trost, and as far as the police records stated, this woman from your father’s past saw all of you. She recognized your father, and saw that he was now happily married, with a daughter on top of that. She became angry, deranged, and she followed your family home. It’s unclear what happened after that, but the assumption in the police records is that you weren’t in her immediate line of sight when she confronted your parents. She was so angry at them that she forgot you even existed, so she kidnapped your parents at gunpoint. She forced them back to the university where they had met, and she killed your mother.” He tightened his hold on her hand. “Then she killed him.”

Mikasa was trembling, but Eren couldn’t tell if it was from grief or from rage.

“I think mom and dad knew,” he whispered, “because I remember them being gone for a while after you came to live with us. When Jean’s parents were taking care of us for that one week? I think it was during the trial. She was caught relatively quickly after having killed your parents, and when she was on trial, she demanded that they not sentence her under the insanity plea and she was sentenced to a regular maximum security prison. She was diagnosed with cancer while incarcerated and passed away shortly afterwards.”

He had to say it. He _knew_  he had to say it. It felt like broken glass in his mouth, and it made his lungs burn to even think of letting the words escape him, but he _had_  to say them. There was a point to rehashing this horrible, traumatic event in Mikasa’s life, and he _had_  to tell her the point.

Inhaling slowly and letting it out shakily, he looked up at her face, feeling his heart breaking at the tears welling in her eyes.

“The woman. The one from university, who was pregnant. Who followed you home. The one who killed your parents.” He clenched his jaw, but forced the words out. “She was Levi’s mother.”

Mikasa stared at him for a long while, saying nothing and clenching his fingers so tightly he was worried they would break.

After what felt like an eternity, she released his grip, set her coffee down, and then turned to throw open the door.

“Mi-Mikasa!” Eren scrambled to get out of the truck, cursing when he spilled his own coffee into his lap, but he ignored that and leapt out of the vehicle, slamming the door and racing around the side of it, worried she was going to do something stupid.

She was still there, pacing on the other side of the truck with her palms digging into her eyes and her breathing ragged while she tried to process what he’d just told her.

Eren hurried to her side and threw his arms around her, hugging her tightly and pressing his cheek against her head. “Mikasa, I’m sorry. I’m so, _so_  sorry.”

“Let me go,” she forced out.

He only tightened his grip. “Mikasa, plea—”

“You smell like him, I said let _go_!” She shoved at him hard and Eren felt himself flying away from her, slamming into his truck hard enough for his head to slam back into the window, cracking the glass. He fell to the ground, feeling like he couldn’t breathe and stars exploding across his vision.

“What the fuck!” someone shouted before running footsteps made their way closer. “Jesus _Christ_ , Mikasa! What the fuck is wrong with you!”

“I-I didn’t—”

“Eren. Eren, buddy. Hey. Are you with me?” Someone was slapping lightly at his cheek and Eren blinked hard, trying to get his vision to focus. Jean’s concerned face swam into view, hands on either cheek while one of them continued to pat gently.

“That’s it. Come on, buddy. Stay with me. Are you okay? Can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up?”

Eren felt disoriented, bringing one hand to his temple and wincing. He let his hand trail back into his hair and when he pulled it forward again, he saw blood.

“Oh shit. Oh shit, bro. Okay, uh—okay. I’m just gonna—I’m calling your dad.”

“Eren, I’m sorry,” Mikasa said, moving into his line of sight.

“Maybe you should get out of here,” Jean snapped, turning to her with a phone at his ear.

“I didn’t mean t—”

“Yeah, well, you did. Get out of here before I have to explain this to your parents. Yeah, hi, mum? Is dad around? I think Eren’s gonna need some help.”

Eren wanted to tell Jean that he didn’t understand, that it had been an accident. He tried to formulate the words, but they wouldn’t come out. So all he could do was watch Mikasa’s miserable expression for a few seconds longer before she turned and ran from the parking lot.

He tried to call for her to wait, to just wait, but he couldn’t get the words out.

All he could do was sit there, feeling dizzy and disoriented, while Jean gripped his shoulder tightly with one hand, and spoke urgently into a phone with the other.

So much for promising Levi he was coming back.

* * *

Levi stared at Erwin while his friend watched him, examining every tiny detail of his face after having told him what he’d found out. Levi made sure to keep his mask in place, but all he could think about was the way Eren had refused to look at him, had pulled away from him.

Mikasa would hate him. Eren was disgusted by him. His mother had literally ruined Levi’s life _again_. It had been bad enough the first time around, when he’d been forced to live in foster care and been taunted and bullied and abused for the horrible things his mother had done. Now, he was finally in a good place, he had his life together, he had _Eren_.

And she’d taken that away, too.

“You’re telling me,” Levi said slowly, calmly, “that my mother is the one who killed Mikasa’s family, because Mikasa’s father abandoned her while she was pregnant with me?”

He could think of a better way of finding out that Mikasa was his half-sister.

“Levi, I’m really sorry,” Erwin reached out one hand, placing it gently on his knee. “I know this isn’t something you want to hear. I know you never wanted me to look into your past, but this was a consequence of looking into hers.”

He supposed he should have known. Back in the warehouse, when she’d saved Eren, he’d known they were related. It was evidently on their father’s side, because his mother had been an only child. To have Mikasa be, not only a Werewolf, but also a descendent of Zegrath? That meant immediate blood relation, and that could only be blood on their father’s side.

But never had he considered that it was his mother who’d been the reason Mikasa no longer had her own. He’d known she’d killed people, but he’d never bothered to find out _who_. Hell, he hadn’t even known Ackerman wasn’t technically his last name. His mother must’ve just put that on his birth certificate because that was his father’s last name.

His mother had killed Mikasa’s parents. His mother had _killed_  his boyfriend’s sister’s _parents_.

“Is that why Eren didn’t want to look at me?”

“No,” Erwin insisted sharply. “No, Eren was worried about having to tell Mikasa. I thought it would be best for the people closest to the two of you to break the news. I didn’t want her to hear it from me. I wanted her to be with Eren, to have support. He was just scared, but believe me, he knows this wasn’t your fault.”

“Her father,” Levi said, unable to say _our_  father, “he was a Werewolf.”

“He would’ve had to be,” Erwin said. “He probably started to shift,” his voice quietened when he spoke those words. “I don’t think your mother wanted to kill him. I think she wanted to kill her. But seeing his wife die, it probably triggered the change. Werewolf or not, if he was still shifting, and your mother had a gun... Even we aren’t immune to bullets.”

Levi felt sick to his stomach. How was he going to face Mikasa with this knowledge. She would know what his mother had done. He would feel guilt gnawing away at him every time he looked at her. He would spend every day of his life wondering if Eren would value his relationship with Mikasa more than he did the one he had with Levi. Would Mikasa ask him to break it off? If she did, would he listen?

Worse yet, if Mikasa asked _Levi_  to break it off with Eren, would he be able to refuse? If she demanded he leave, return to Trost, never speak to them all ever again, would he actually do that?

No. No, he wouldn’t. His mother’s mistakes weren’t his own. Levi wasn’t perfect, and he knew he had a lot to answer for in his life. He had killed Isabelle, he’d scarred and destroyed Hanji’s life. He’d gotten Eld killed.

He was by no means a saint, but this? This hadn’t been him. This wasn’t his fault. His mother was a crazy, murderous bitch, and he’d known that for a long time. This wasn’t on him, and he trusted Mikasa to be smart enough to know that.

Didn’t mean she would forgive him right away. She’d likely need time. He’d probably have to avoid her for a little while, but this wasn’t his fault, and he was sure that—

Erwin’s phone began to ring. He seemed to be in favour of ignoring it, because he didn’t make a move to answer, keeping one hand on Levi’s knee. After a few rings, it stopped.

Then Hanji’s phone began to ring in the other room.

_“Hello?”_  Their voice carried, mostly being in the other room for the semblance of privacy as opposed to _actually_  not being able to hear them.

_“Hanji, I need Erwin! I need him now!”_

Erwin was on his feet instantly, Levi following, the two of them hurrying into the next room while Hanji held their phone out. The blond man snatched it from them and put it to his ear.

“Mikasa, what is it? What happened?”

_“I fucked up! Erwin, I fucked up! Eren is—shit! Erwin, I didn’t mean to, you have to believe me! I was just angry, and I just—”_

Levi didn’t wait to hear any more. He didn’t wait to listen to Erwin calming her down. He just turned and bolted from the house, snatching his keys off the hall table. He threw open his front door, jumping off the porch, and raced for his truck. Climbing behind the wheel, he saw Hanji at the front door, yelling his name, but he ignored them and kicked up dirt with the back wheels, foot pressing the gas pedal into the floor.

Shooting down the hill, he almost caused an accident at the bottom when another car was passing as he flew out onto the road. They honked, but he ignored them and straightened the truck, flooring it down the road, even while not entirely knowing where he was going.

His phone rang in his pocket and he pulled it out, glancing at the name before answering and pressing it to his ear.

“Where is he?” he demanded.

_“Levi, you need to calm do—”_

“Where is he?!” he shouted.

Silence for a moment, then a small sigh before Hanji answered. _“Hannes’. They were talking in the parking lot. Mikasa says Jean is with him.”_

Levi threw his phone onto the passenger seat and turned at the next corner, speeding quickly through the streets until the coffee shop came into view.

He careened into the parking lot, slamming on the brakes so hard that the tires screeched painfully loudly against the asphalt before the truck fully stopped. He leapt out of it while the engine was still running and raced over to where Eren was, sitting with his back against the front wheel of his truck with his father bent down beside him and Jean hovering anxiously, one arm crossed over his chest and the other chewing on a thumbnail.

“Eren!”

He reached him, bending down on his other side so his father could keep shining a light into his eyes.

“Are you okay? What happened? I smell blood!”

“Hey, crazy man, let’s calm down a little.” A hand fell on his shoulder and he rounded on Jean, resisting the urge to bare his teeth. Jean gave him a look. “Seriously. Calm down.” His eyes lowered pointedly and when Levi looked at his hands, he saw the tips beginning to darken and he clenched them into fists, struggling to remain calm before turning back to Grisha, who had mostly been ignoring him while checking over his son.

He sighed, putting his penlight back into his pocket. “Looks like you have a concussion.”

“Terrific.” Eren slurred with a wince, and reached back to touch his head but his father caught his wrist.

“We should get you home, have that cleaned up. How did this even happen?”

Silence.

“He tripped,” Jean blurted out. “Moron was talking to me while walking backwards and he just,” Jean smacked one hand into the other, “right into the door.”

“Well, can’t say your mother’s going to be too happy to find out you’re injured again, but at least this time it was because of your clumsiness.” Grisha patted Eren’s shoulder with a smile and stood. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s get you home. Come on, up you get.” He bent down and helped Eren stand slowly, the brunet bringing one hand to his temple and clenching his eyes shut. He let his father help him to his car, but before he got in, he turned back to Jean and Levi.

It looked like he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t with his father at his elbow so he just climbed into the car. When the door shut and his father moved around to climb in, Eren locked eyes with Levi and spoke so quietly he was certain his father wouldn’t have heard, even if he’d been in the car with him. His speech was still slightly slurred, like he couldn’t get his tongue working the way he wanted it to.

_“Tell her it’s okay. Really. It was an accident.”_

Grisha climbed in, calling for Jean to let Hannes know the truck would stay there overnight, and then disappeared into the car, driving off towards Eren’s house.

Levi rounded on Jean immediately, eyes blazing.

“What happened?” he demanded.

“I don’t even know,” Jean insisted, throwing his arms in the air. “I was typing away, working on something, and I heard Eren shout her name. I look up and see her pacing and he’s moving to her side, and he hugs her and then she just—she fucking _shoves_  him, but like, _really_  shoves him. He flew through the air!” Jean waved one hand incredulously. “He was _airborne_! He slammed into the truck and when he hit the ground, I came outside because that was _not_  cool! You don’t just throw your brother into his truck! Then I yelled at her and—” Jean paled. “Oh my God, I yelled at Mikasa. Oh shit, I was a dick to her! She’s never gonna love me now!”

Levi ignored him, turning to scan the area, inhaling deeply. Mikasa’s scent was still fresh, he could probably follow her, but he wasn’t sure he should. He was probably the last person that she wanted to see right now, and he really couldn’t blame her.

Turning back to Jean, he heard his phone ring before he could tell the moron to shut up and that Mikasa was never going to love him. Just because he was angry wasn’t any reason to be a dick to Jean about it.

Turning to jog back to his truck, he ignored Jean’s inquiry of where he was going and just reached into it to grab his phone. Erwin’s name flashed on the screen again, but he was fairly certain it was actually him this time.

He answered and put the phone to his ear.

“She gave him a concussion,” he snapped.

_“Everyone has a hard time at the beginning, Levi. Don’t pretend you didn’t accidentally hurt anyone.”_

“Erwin, she _hurt_  him!” he shouted.

_“Yes, and it was obviously an accident, because she’s pretty distraught right now,”_  Erwin said curtly, obviously telling Levi to keep his anger in check. _“We’re going to head to a motel. She can’t stay here, and she won’t go home. We’ll reconvene in the morning. Get some sleep, Levi, and try to calm down. She’s known him longer than you have, she didn’t mean to hurt him. You should know what an accident looks like, you’ve had your fair share of them.”_

Erwin hung up and Levi winced, gritting his teeth and doing the same. That had been a low blow, but he figured it was Erwin trying to put him in his place. Levi _was_  being a little unfair, considering Erwin was right.

He’d had his own fair share of accidents.

“Is everything okay?” Jean asked worriedly, having moved up behind Levi.

“Everything’s fine, Jean,” Levi muttered, shoving his phone back into his pocket and climbing into the truck once more. “Just a little family drama, is all.”

“Oh. So... she knows, then. About your mom.”

Levi turned to him sharply and Jean threw his hands up in surrender.

“Hey man, I’m the research guy, _and_  I was the one tasked with Erwin’s file retrievals, remember? I’ve known for a while, I just figured, you know, not my place.”

Sometimes, Levi wanted to murder Jean. Other times, he felt like he should have a lot more respect for him than he did.

This was one of the rare latter times.

“You should probably call her,” Levi said. “Apologize for whatever it is you said to her.”

“Yeah, probably.” Jean winced and rubbed the back of his head. “In a minute, though. Still kind of reeling from watching her throw Eren through the air. I mean, I get it was an accident, but it’s still kind of a shock to see her do that to someone she loves, you know?”

Levi’s hands tightened around the steering wheel. “It was an accident,” he whispered, knowing it was true, but still struggling to get the words out. “I’m going to check on Eren.”

“Right. I’ll head over in the morning, don’t wanna crowd him.” Jean frowned. “Make sure he doesn’t die before I show up, will you?”

Levi gave him an annoyed look, then slammed the door so he could leave.

He didn’t want to be angry with Mikasa, he knew it wasn’t fair, but it didn’t change the fact that she’d just given Eren a concussion.

If he wasn’t okay in the morning, he and Mikasa were going to have much bigger problems than his psychotic mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG one chapter left and then what will I do with my life?  
> Study, probably. For that exam. I should be studying for. Right now.


	26. Chapter Twenty-Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking around for the ride guys. It was fun :) <3 Maybe now I can go study for my huge exam on Monday |D 
> 
> Characters (c) Isayama Hajime

Fingers tapped away at the keyboard of a laptop while ochre eyes shifted back and forth across the screen. One hand reached out for a mug sitting at the edge of the table but when it brought it to thin lips, the mug was found to be empty.

“Hey Hannes,” Jean called, eyes still on the screen and hand lifting the mug up. “Refill?”

“Sure thing, Jean.”

Setting the mug back down, his hand returned to the keyboard and continued to type, pausing only so he could click open two different windows, read what was written, and then return to his word document.

A fresh cup of coffee was set down at his elbow and he grunted a thanks without bothering to look up, reaching out for it and taking a sip.

“Creating a database?”

Jean promptly choked, coughing hard and setting the mug down so he could pound against his own chest, feeling coffee dribbling down his chin. He grabbed for a napkin, covering his mouth and wiping the coffee up simultaneously while the person responsible for his lack of oxygen smiled in amusement and took a seat across from him.

Jean was getting really tired of people doing that to him.

“Hey,” Jean choked out, then coughed roughly again. “I didn’t know you were in town.”

“Just for a little bit,” Erwin commented, folding his hands together. “Mikasa was homesick, and there were some things that needed to be discussed.”

“Her parents?”

Erwin looked amused again. “Levi mentioned you had found out. I suppose you found the file on my computer.”

Jean nodded slowly, getting himself back under control, and took a real sip of coffee this time. “I knew even before the file, just not about it being Levi’s mom. So I guess it was the file, yeah. Armin knows, too. We weren’t snooping, we were just—”

“Trying to find me. I understand. That’s actually why I’m here.” Erwin smiled. “I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to come and thank you for everything you did.”

Jean cocked an eyebrow. Apparently this was why he’d been asking when Jean was going on vacation. “Everything I did? What exactly did I do?”

“You saved my life, Jean. Don’t act like what happened in that warehouse was any small feat.”

Jean preferred not thinking about the warehouse at all. He still had nightmares about it and, oh yeah, there was also that thing about him wetting himself while in a room full of Werewolves. Something the paramedics had commented on.

The pissing himself thing, not the Werewolf thing. He was never going to live that down.

Though really, he had to admit that he knew why Erwin was thanking him. Every time Reiner would start blowing wolfsbane into Erwin’s cage for fun, or poke at him with silver weapons, Jean would kick up a fuss until Reiner turned his attention on him.

Erwin was already weak from being there so long, and his life seemed to matter less to the Casters than Jean’s did. He knew it was stupid, and that he could’ve gotten himself killed, but it didn’t sit right with him to watch Reiner abuse Erwin like it was a fun game.

Forcing his thoughts back to the present, Jean half-shrugged and avoided Erwin’s gaze, picking his coffee back up. “You’d have done the same for me.”

“I heard you were badly injured the last time you tried to help me.” Erwin held one hand out. “May I?”

Cocking an eyebrow, Jean just turned his head and leaned forward, feeling Erwin’s fingers press lightly around the scarring tissue where Reiner had hit him. Erwin had already been unconscious by the time that had happened, Jean had just been trying to make sure Reiner didn’t fucking _kill_  him. Reiner seemed to really not like Erwin, for some reason. Probably just because he was a Werewolf in general, and nothing against Erwin himself. He’d been prepared to let Annie kill Eren so, really, Reiner’s moral compass wasn’t exactly pointing in the right direction.

“I’m sorry that happened. And I’m sorry you’ve been having trouble sleeping.”

Jean shrugged again, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

“Not your fault. Oluo’s been really great, and seeing him is helping. Being able to talk about, you know,” Jean made a vague gesture before continuing, “is helpful. I don’t think it would’ve been as beneficial if I couldn’t speak openly.”

“I’m glad that he’s been helping.” Erwin smiled. “He was very vocal during the pack leader meeting. He couldn’t speak about your sessions, of course, due to privacy, but he was very helpful in convincing them that yourself, Eren, Armin, and your other two friends weren’t a risk to our kind.”

Jean nodded slowly, shifting uncomfortably. “I’ll have to thank him for that. And you, since, you know, you probably helped make sure we weren’t killed for knowing about your, uh, _problem_.” He cleared his throat. “So I guess thanks for having our backs and not helping the other pack leaders bury us in Levi’s huge backyard.”

Erwin let out a small chuckle. “Well, I couldn’t do that after everything we’ve all been through, could I?”

“Guess not,” Jean said with a small grin. It fell off his face soon afterwards. “Hey, why did you make it _sound_  like you were? That was a dick move, texting me all scary-like with your ‘I’ll see you soon’ bullshit.”

Erwin looked amused again. It was starting to piss Jean off a little.

“It wasn’t my intention to frighten you. I wasn’t sure you would want to see me after what happened, but I wanted the opportunity to thank you in person.” His eyes studied Jean’s face.

That made him even _more_  uncomfortable but he just shrugged.

“Why would I? We went through hell together and came out relatively unscathed.” Jean motioned his head vaguely. “I’d say it was a win for us. Besides, with Mikasa involved with your side, and Eren dating Levi, I figure we’re probably going to see a lot of each other. We didn’t really get the chance to chat in the warehouse, but you seem like a cool guy.”

He was a little thankful Erwin didn’t comment on that last bit, but he _did_  smile. Jean may or may not have been talking non-stop while conscious as a means to keep both of them sane, and he’d probably shared more about his childhood with Erwin than he had with anyone else in his life.

Eren didn’t count, he was pretty much involved in every part of Jean’s childhood. It didn’t count if he was _in_  the stories being told.

“I’m glad to hear that. I would like the opportunity to get to know you better.” Erwin checked his watch. “Though another time, I’m afraid. I have somewhere to be.” The man stood, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet. He dropped a few bills on the table, which made Jean frown, but before he could say anything, Erwin was holding out a business card.

“You have my number, but this has all of my available contact information. Do keep in touch, Jean Kirschstein. I have a feeling you could turn out to be a formidable ally.”

“Because I like the internet?” he asked slowly, confused, but reached out to take the card anyway.

“Everyone has their gifts.” Erwin smiled.

Jean opened his mouth to comment on that, but the words froze in his lungs when one of Erwin’s huge hands reached out and cupped his cheek, rubbing his palm across his skin and then down the front of his neck along his throat.

“Have a good day. I’ll see you soon.” Erwin pulled his hand back and walked out of the coffee shop without another word, leaving Jean sitting there with one hand still raised, holding the business card, and the other frozen on the table.

What the fuck?

_What_  the _fuck_?!

Didn’t Levi do that to Eren all the time?

Dropping the business card, Jean immediately began typing once more, looking through all the different websites he’d found about Werewolves until he found something that caught his eye and he read it over quickly.

_Wolves are extremely territorial, and are always looking for ways to ensure others are aware of what is considered to be their property. This is something known as ‘scent-marking’ and is used to mark something or someone as belonging to them with the wolf’s own scent. When individuals are involved, for Werewolves, this can be something as simple as touching someone repeatedly in the same area—generally the throat or wrists, where the smell is most potent—to something as complex as exchange of bodily fluids. Once a wolf has marked someone or something as their property, other wolves are cautioned to steer clear or they run the risk of a fight should one wolf’s property be encroached on._

“Oh no. No, no, no.” Jean reached up with both of his hands and began to rub furiously at his cheek and neck where Erwin had just touched him. “I am not playing this weird territory game, no. That’s not happening. No!” Jean lurched to his feet. “Hannes, I need to use the bathroom! Watch my shit!”

Jean bolted for the back of the coffee shop, still rubbing at his neck.

He was _not_  going to turn into some Werewolf’s bitch! His name was _not_  Eren Jaeger!

“Why is this my life?!”

* * *

Eren stabbed absently at the maccaroni noodles on the plate in front of him, his head pounding and the light shining through the window hurting his eyes. His father had brought him to the clinic to run some tests and ensure he was okay, but some of the symptoms were likely to stick around for a few days, which sucked.

Worse yet, he’d woken up to his mother speaking to Mikasa, not knowing she was back in town, and had gone through a very lengthy and detailed explanation of Eren’s injury. When he’d rushed the phone to grab it and speak to her, Mikasa had hung up.

So now he was sitting in the kitchen eating lunch with his mother while she fussed over him and insisted he be more careful. He was annoyed about it, and feeling more irritable by the second, but he knew he had to keep his mouth shut because none of this was her fault.

Besides, he knew from the last concussion he’d gotten in high school that irritability was one of the symptoms of a concussion and the last time he’d let it get the better of him, he’d made his mother cry. He wasn’t going to let that happen a second time.

He winced and let out a grunt when the doorbell rang, the sound jarring and making his head pound. His brain felt like it was too big for his skull which, he supposed, made sense in this case.

Carla was out of her chair instantly, hurrying to the front door. The surprised but delighted sound that met his ears suggested it was Levi and, sure enough, when she returned to the kitchen, Levi was trailing behind her.

“Hey,” Eren muttered.

“Hi.” Levi took a seat beside him and reached out hesitantly to touch his face, as if unsure of his welcome. Eren just let him do what he needed to do, running his palm across his cheek and down the side of his neck, then back up before retreating it. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got my head smashed against a window.”

Levi let out a snort, and thanked Carla when she offered to make him tea. His gratitude suggested he would be staying for a time, so she bustled about getting the beverage ready while Eren continued to stab at his food, occasionally bringing a forkful to his mouth.

The three of them were silent while Carla puttered around getting everything ready for the tea. Levi took the opportunity to reach back up and press his hand against the side of Eren’s neck, leaving it there and brushing his thumb against Eren’s jawline.

He could tell Levi still wasn’t entirely sure of his welcome, as if he thought Eren would judge him for what his mother had done, and that just irritated him further because what the fuck? Levi wasn’t his mother.

Instead of snapping at him like he wanted to, he just reigned in the irritation and shifted so he was pressing his face further against Levi’s hand. That seemed to do the trick because Levi’s previously tensed posture relaxed ever so slightly.

When Carla returned with the tea, she set one down in front of Levi and another in front of herself, eyes catching on the mark on Levi’s arm. She took a sip of her tea, but said nothing while Eren continued to eat and Levi stroked his thumb gently back and forth across Eren’s jaw.

After almost ten minutes of silence, half of Levi’s tea gone, and Eren’s plate finally empty, Carla set her mug down and smiled at them both.

“So. Now that I have both of you in the same room together, and an empty house, we’re going to discuss this.”

Levi’s thumb paused against Eren’s cheek. Eren himself stared at his mother, concerned.

“This?” he asked cautiously, wondering if she meant his relationship with Levi. It looked like Levi was thinking the same thing.

“Yes.” Carla took another sip of her tea, set it down, and offered them both a smile. “How much of what Annie is saying is actually true?”

Eren’s gaze shot in Levi’s direction before returning instantly to his mother, mouth opening and closing before he let out a bark of laughter. Levi’s hand slid off his face. “What? Tr—none of it. What? That’s crazy.” He forced out a laugh. “Casters and magic and-and—what?” He laughed again.

“Hm.” Carla gave him a look. “I thought you promised no more secrets, Eren. Do I look like an idiot to you?”

“Do I—is that—uh...” Eren didn’t know how to answer that question, so he just stuttered himself into silence and wished he had some more food to shove in his mouth.

“I’m not asking for the full story,” Carla said quietly, eyes on her tea and hands wrapped around the mug. “I’m just asking for a part of it. The part that involves me. The part where I can understand. I just...” she trailed off, one hand shifting to cover the mark on her left wrist, almost doing so unconsciously.

There was a beat of silence. Then,

“It’s a binding spell.”

“Dude!” Eren turned to Levi, punching him in the arm. The action hurt him more than Levi, he was sure, but the pain didn’t diminish the glower Eren was sending him.

“What’s the harm in telling her about the mark?” Levi asked, seeming completely unconcerned. “It’s her ancestry. It’s history she should know. Like you, she didn’t have that mark tattooed on her arm.”

“So your mark,” Carla said, eyes shifting to Eren. “It appeared on your skin? You woke up one day and it was just there?”

Eren shot Levi the filthiest glare in his arsenal, then turned back to his mother and nodded grudgingly. She seemed to relax and it looked like a heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders at that one action. It was like she’d spent her entire life wondering if she was insane, and had forgotten a drunken night at a tattoo parlour. Having Eren confirm his mark hadn’t exactly been obtained in the conventional sense seemed to be a huge relief to her.

“You said spell,” Carla said after a moment. “You mean magic, yes?”

Levi nodded, sipping at his tea and shifting one arm so it was draped across the back of Eren’s chair.

“So magic is real,” she said slowly, eyes narrowing, but it looked to be more in thought than suspicion, as if she were trying to wrap her head around the idea. “I’d always wondered, with the things I’d found in old books and boxes belonging to others in my family, but no one ever spoke of it.”

“It was a long time ago,” Levi offered. “Your family’s magic diminished and is virtually non-existent. There was likely a point where someone decided it wasn’t history that needed to be passed down. It wouldn’t affect the lives of your family any longer, so it was struck from your history.”

Eren felt like she was taking it really well. She’d probably been thinking about this for years, ever since getting the mark on her arm. Eren knew they had boxes and folders and other stuff in the attic from his grandparents, so he had to wonder if the story had only recently been stopped if those items had hints of their true history in it.

Carla’s gaze shifted to Levi. “Are you magic, too?”

The corners of Levi’s lips twitched. “Something like that.”

The intensity of her stare was making Eren uncomfortable, but Levi didn’t seem to mind.

“Grisha said... it looked like an animal was in our storage room at work. The door was damaged.”

Eren panicked. He _really_  didn’t want his mother finding out he was fucking a Werewolf, not to mention there was also Mikasa and he didn’t want that coming out, either. “Can we maybe not delve too deeply into Levi here?” he asked urgently. “Can you just trust that he’s good magic and it’s all good?”

Carla looked at him, considered his request for a moment, and then nodded once. Levi didn’t admit to anything, but he mentioned he would help get the door replaced since having something lock from the outside was extremely unsafe. Carla simply accepted his offer and then kindly moved back to her own history, allowing Eren to breathe. She asked for details, and then stood to make more tea for the story.

Eren let Levi do most of the talking, since he didn’t know where to draw the line with the Werewolf thing, but there wasn’t much to tell. Levi mostly just gave a brief history of the area with the Casters, and explained the purpose of the mark. When she asked why Levi had it and Grisha didn’t, Levi just smirked and said it was because his “good magic,” as Eren had put it, meant he had some Supernatural blood in him. Not a lie, just not the whole truth.

Carla seemed to take it fairly well, but Eren wasn’t looking forward to her digging too much and finding out everything else that had happened. He just hoped she truly _did_  leave it alone. It looked like she was going to, but he had no guarantee. At least he knew she loved Mikasa, and was fond of Levi, so even if she suspected what Levi was, even now she didn’t seem bothered by it.

That was comforting, at least.

They had just moved on to more normal conversations, mostly related to the trial, when the doorbell rang again.

Eren groaned and buried his face in his arms, crossing them on the table and letting out a whine. Levi’s hand gripped the back of his neck tightly for a moment before sliding down his back and rubbing gently. The action was soothing, and he let himself melt into his chair, but he instantly tensed once the door opened and his mother let out a squeal of delight that contained a name in there somewhere.

The hand on his back stilled instantly.

“Mikasa! Honey! I didn’t know you were back! Why did you ring the bell? You still live here, don’t break a mother’s heart!”

She had to know Levi was there. His truck, his scent—it wasn’t like she hadn’t noticed.

Levi’s hand left Eren’s back and when he turned to look at him, his face looked dark.

“She wants to talk to you. She wants you to go out there so you can talk about what happened.”

Eren figured Mikasa was muttering this under her breath, because as far as he knew, Levi wasn’t telepathic. Sighing, he stood, chair scraping loudly against the floor, but before he left he bent down and kissed Levi lightly on the lips.

“I’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here.”

Smiling slightly, Eren turned and headed out into the corridor, where Carla was still hugging Mikasa almost to death. When she heard Eren approaching, she pulled away and motioned her excitedly.

“Eren! Look who’s back for a visit!”

He felt guilt gnawing away at his insides, because his mother looked so damn _happy_  to see Mikasa, and Eren had had dinner with her the night before.

“Hey, long time no see,” he forced out, reaching the two of them and opening his arms for a hug. He wrapped them around Mikasa, but she felt stiff beneath him, her hands barely managing to rise to wrap around him before he was pulling away. He wondered if she could smell too much Levi on him again.

He didn’t feel like having round two right now, so he quickly took a step back so he wasn’t in her immediate space.

“Can I have a moment with Eren?” Mikasa asked Carla, reaching out for her hand and squeezing. “I just wanted to catch him up on some things, if that’s okay.”

“Will you stay for dinner?” Carla asked suspiciously, evidently catching on to the fact that Mikasa didn’t have any bags with her and was therefore unlikely to be staying long.

“Of course. Wouldn’t miss it.”

Carla beamed and ushered them away, promising to tell Levi that Eren would call him later. He nodded in thanks, despite knowing Levi likely wouldn’t leave, and then headed upstairs. Mikasa followed behind him and the two of them headed into Eren’s room before he shut the door. He turned to watch Mikasa while she wandered around his room, touching various items as if she’d never been in there before.

“He really is everywhere, isn’t he?” she asked quietly.

Eren didn’t know what she meant at first, but then figured she was talking about Levi. He’d been hanging out in Eren’s room while he slept long before they’d even gotten together, so his scent was probably everywhere.

“What does scent-marking mean?” Eren asked instead of answering her question. She turned to glance at him and he crossed his arms awkwardly. “You mentioned that yesterday, and it’s not like I didn’t notice the way you did the whole face/neck rub thing Levi does. And the second he came out after you did it to me, he instantly did it again.” He frowned slightly. “Is it like... what is it? I mean, it’s a wolf thing, but what _is_  it?” He had a vague idea, given what Levi had said the first time they’d had sex, but there was a difference between smelling like Levi sometimes and smelling like him _all_  the time.

“It’s a territory thing,” she said softly, turning away from him and continuing to touch some of his items at random. “It’s what a wolf does to someone they consider theirs. A silent way to let other wolves know that a person is with another wolf, and not to touch them. You’re my brother, and I’m a Werewolf now. I don’t like that Levi feels he has a monopoly on you.”

Her hand stilled where it was on his desk and clenched into a fist, her face still averted.

“I’m really sorry about yesterday.”

“It was an accident,” he said immediately. “Don’t worry. I’m not mad.”

“It shouldn’t have happened at all,” she insisted, finally turning to him. Her face looked like her usual cool mask of indifference, but her eyes were sad. “What Levi’s mother did is-is unforgivable. I have always hated the person who took my parents away from me, and I will continue to hate that person now that I know who it is. But my reaction was... unfair. Levi isn’t responsible for what his mother did, and to lash out at you because you smell like him when he hasn’t done anything wrong—Eren, I’m sorry.”

He moved closer to her, putting his hands on her arms and rubbing them slowly up and down.

“It was a lot to take in. It was a shock. I’m not mad it happened, I’m just mad that you ever had to find out about it. But closure is better than never knowing, and I’m sure mum and dad would’ve talked to you about it eventually.”

She shrugged one shoulder, averting her gaze. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I hurt you.”

“I’m durable,” Eren insisted with a grin. “This is nothing. And it was an accident.”

“Jean’s mad at me.”

“Jean isn’t mad at you.” He gave her a small shake. “He’s been trying to text you to apologize. He just got defensive, you know how he is. He’d have said the same thing were our roles reversed. Actually, he’d probably have been a bigger dick, considering how much he loves you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Sighing, Eren wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in closer, trying to ignore the fact that the last time he’d done this, she’d thrown him back into his truck. She hesitated before hugging him back, and he wondered if downstairs she was just surprised he’d actually hugged her considering what she’d done.

“You’re my sister. And I love you. It was an accident, so can we please just let it go? I’m okay, and nobody is mad.”

“Levi’s mad.”

“Levi’s always mad, he doesn’t count.” Eren pinched her in the side and she let out a shaky breath before pulling away.

“I’m really sorry.”

“I know.” He took her face in his hands and pulled her forward so he could kiss her forehead. “But it’s okay. I understand.” He paused. “Are _you_  okay? I mean, aside from what happened between you and me, are you-are you okay?”

She let out a slow breath, but nodded. “I’ve calmed down. I was upset—”

“With good reason,” Eren cut in, but she continued as if he hadn’t.

“—but I’ve calmed down. A part of me always knew my parents were dead, and that Levi was somehow related to me, but I think the realization that it was his mother just...” She shrugged again, then seemed to be trying to shake out her limbs. “It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t ask for his mother to do that, so it’s not fair to blame him for it. Erwin is meant to be setting something up for later tonight before we leave so Levi and I can talk. Clear the air, so to speak.”

“That’s great.” Eren grinned. “That’s awesome. I’m really glad you guys are going to talk it out.”

“Yeah. But.” Mikasa reached up and before Eren could say anything, she slapped both hands on his cheeks and began to rub rather painfully against his skin, her hands sliding down along his throat, down his arms, across his chest.

When she was finished, he felt thoroughly violated, but Mikasa just smiled slightly.

“He’s gonna have to learn to share. You were my brother first.”

“Please don’t ever do that again.” The scent-marking was something he’d grown accustomed to being a routine with Levi, something his _boyfriend_  did to him. Having his sister do it felt very wrong.

“Wolves are territorial. Get used to it. See you at dinner.”

Eren said nothing when she walked out of the room, letting out a sigh and rubbing at his cheek with a wince.

When he returned to the kitchen, he had half a second to see Levi’s nostrils flare before he was out of his seat and rubbing his hands all over his face like Mikasa had just done, Carla watching on in confusion.

Eren just stood there and let him do it without complaint, silently sighing to himself about how fucking weird wolves were.

* * *

Eren was already at Levi’s house when the others showed up. Mikasa had returned to the hotel after dinner, so Eren had headed over to Levi’s so they could spend time together and watch some television before the other wolves showed up.

When Levi tensed, he knew that meant a car was coming, and within a minute, doors were slamming outside and footsteps headed towards the front door. Levi pulled away from Eren so he could go and answer it, opening it before they’d even knocked. Hanji practically pranced in, going to give Eren a giant hug that made his head hurt while Erwin just nodded politely in greeting. Mikasa entered last, Levi shutting the door behind her, and then the two of them stood awkwardly by the entrance of the living room.

There was silence while the two of them shifted their weight and seemed to be waiting for the other to say something. Eren almost wanted to leave, because the tension was painful.

“I,” Mikasa said slowly, and Eren braced himself for something terrible, “am _not_  calling you my older brother.”

Oh good. Nothing horrible.

“I can live with that,” Levi replied stiffly.

“Also, your mother is a crazy, murderous bitch.”

Spoke too soon.

“Can’t argue with that.”

“That being said,” Mikasa forced out, looking like it was hard for her to admit this, “I’m glad you didn’t follow in her footsteps. Thank you for helping save Eren, Jean and Armin. And I’m sorry if I’m hostile towards you for a little while, but this is a lot to take in.”

Levi nodded slowly once, then shifted his gaze to the others in the room. “I’d like some time alone with Mikasa.” He looked back at her. “If that’s okay with you.”

She shrugged her shoulders stiffly. “Sure.”

Erwin nodded and slapped one hand on Eren’s shoulder. “The three of us can make ourselves scarce. Eren, coffee?”

“Uh, sure?” He didn’t know that he wanted to leave the two of them alone, but at least Mikasa didn’t look murderous. Only uncomfortable. Levi looked like Levi, though Eren was sure he felt guilty despite none of this being his fault.

Hopefully Mikasa would understand that during the course of the conversation and they could part as, at the very least, tentative friends.

When Eren started to leave with Erwin and Hanji, Mikasa caught his wrist and made a face.

“Don’t let Erwin get too close to Jean.”

“Why?” Eren asked slowly, confused.

“I went to visit him earlier so we could talk, and he smelled like Erwin.”

“So? Erwin said he wanted to thank him and—oh. Oh!” Holy shit, Erwin had scent-marked Jean.

Mikasa didn’t look happy about it. She was probably starting to feel like everyone she cared about was being claimed by other wolves.

“He looked it up. He was pretty freaked out. Maybe just—keep some space between them if he’s at Hannes’.”

Eren nodded, turning to leave and felt Levi’s hands on the back of his neck before he was released. He supposed it was his way of keeping his scent there since Mikasa had grabbed his wrist.

Wolves were fucking weird and annoying, with their scent-marking, and superhearing, and all that other weird wolf shit they did. He tried his best to ignore it, hoping for a balance between Mikasa and Levi when she came back to town permanently, but for now he just headed outside to climb into the back of Erwin’s car so they could head to Hannes’.

Erwin was smiling to himself, evidently having heard the conversation between Mikasa and Eren, and the brunet scowled at this. Jean had enough damage to his psyche without a Werewolf fucking with him. He doubted Erwin _liked_  him, considering what Mikasa had said about why she was scent-marking Eren, but it still kind of bothered him that Erwin was doing it without explaining what he was doing to Jean.

Then again, Levi had been doing it to him for months without fully explaining it, so he supposed he couldn’t be _too_  angry or he would have to be mad at Levi, too.

Then it occurred to him that Levi had been doing it because he liked him. While Mikasa was doing it to him because he was her brother, the fact that one of the two of them liked him and was doing it made him re-think Erwin’s motives.

Shit, if Erwin liked his friend, Jean was _not_  going to be happy about that...

They made their way to Hannes’ and Eren offered to buy their drinks when they entered the small coffee shop. Jean was sitting hunched over at one of the back tables, and Erwin made a beeline for him while Hanji skipped along behind him.

Eren tried not to feel too guilty when he ignored the squawk of shock that escaped his friend, likely when Erwin did something Jean hadn’t liked.

He wandered over to the table with two of the drinks and found Jean trying to keep his laptop between himself and Erwin, like some kind of shield. At least Erwin hadn’t taken a seat beside him.

When Eren returned with the last drink, he sat down in the empty seat at Jean’s side and the four of them began discussing how Mikasa was doing in Trost, and when she was likely to return home. They also brought up Jean’s plans for the coming months, as well as his vacation away with Armin. When they moved to Eren’s plans, Erwin steered the conversation away from the trial every time Hanji tried to bring it up. Eren was grateful, because while he knew it was looming, he was getting tired of talking about it. He just wanted it to be over.

Time seemed to move slowly while they sat there and chatted. He was enjoying their conversations, as well as their company, but he couldn’t help the nervous knot in his stomach at how long it was taking for Levi and Mikasa to call them back. Either they’d murdered each other, or they were having a really long talk about their feelings.

It worried him to realize the former was more likely than the latter, since neither of them were very good with talking about their feelings.

He only relaxed, relief flooding through him, when his phone went off around one in the morning. When he checked it, he saw Mikasa’s name and heard Erwin’s phone go off at the same time. Levi was likely texting him, then.

Eren didn’t mind, it made sense. Mikasa was his sister. Erwin was Levi’s best friend. Besides, he was going home to Levi, so it didn’t bother him.

Opening his messages, he read her first text as a second came in.

**[Mikasa]**  
Don’t worry, Eren.  
**[Mikasa]**  
You’re still my favourite brother.

Eren smiled. Looked like things hadn’t gone too badly once the initial anger and shock wore off.

And he hadn’t lost his title, which he also liked.

A lot.

“We should head back,” Erwin said, draining what was left of his coffee. He’d had at least four while they’d been sitting there, Eren had no idea how he wasn’t bouncing off the walls.

Erwin also hadn’t let Jean leave. Every time he’d tried to make a break for it, Hanji would conveniently be headed for the door, blocking his exit, like they _knew_  Erwin didn’t want him to leave and had been told to ensure he didn’t manage it.

“Are you staying one more night?”

“No, Mikasa wanted to head back. She was worried staying here too long would make her not want to leave, and she still has a long way to go before she’ll be ready to be around your parents.”

Eren nodded and stood, turning to slap Jean on the back in farewell. He grunted, and then held his laptop up like a shield when Erwin reached out for him. All he got for his efforts was Hanji appearing behind him, wrapping their arms around him, and rubbing their cheek against his own before letting their hands slide up his arms and along his throat.

Jean flailed, almost hitting them in the face with his laptop, and Erwin reached out to brush his fingers along the side of his neck before leaving the coffee shop, Jean yelling bloody murder after the two of them.

“Can you not break my best friend, please?” Eren asked when they’d climbed back into the car. “He’s been through a lot, you’re gonna make him need more therapy.”

“Oh, I know a good therapist!” Hanji chirped.

Eren assumed it was Oluo, they probably didn’t realize Jean and Eren were already seeing him. They hadn’t seen him since the wolves had visited, and Eren hoped Jean would be okay when he came around next. He doubted Jean wanted any more Werewolves touching him.

“How long do you think before Mikasa can come home permanently?” he asked instead, buckling himself in.

“At least another two full moons. By then, she should be able to keep her more animalistic side under control. The events of yesterday may have scared her into wanting to stay longer, though, but I’ll talk to her. Your easy forgiveness certainly helped, but it’s not something you forget, harming a loved one.”

Eren shrugged. “Shit happens. It’s all good.”

“Hm,” was all Erwin said to that. “Well, the good news is that you’ll still be able to spend the full moon with Levi. The only difference is that your sister will be in the cage with him.”

Eren was _definitely_  never going over before the change. He’d seen his sister naked once recently and felt like that wasn’t a trend he wanted to follow.

“I wonder what they’ll be like as wolves,” Hanji said excitedly. “They’re both so territorial of Eren, it would be exciting to see them in their wolf-states and how they react to him paying attention to one over the other.”

Maybe Eren wouldn’t go over at all during the full moon. That too. Maybe.

When no one said anything to that comment, the passengers all sat in comfortable silence while Erwin drove them back to Levi’s. Hanji seemed to be starting to nod off in the passenger seat, but Erwin looked wide awake and alert.

Eren was staring out the window, watching the darkness of the forest pass him by. He turned to face forward when Erwin spoke.

“You seem less scared of me.”

“We went through a lot,” Eren said with a shrug. “Given what I went through with someone I thought was my friend, I think having a wolf trying to murder me without meaning to is less scary. At least you couldn’t help it.”

“Indeed. Though I’m still sorry that happened. I’m glad we’ve been able to move past it.” Erwin turned, heading up the hill to Levi’s. “I was thinking of relocating.”

Eren’s brain shut down at those words and it took a few seconds for it to boot back up. “Relocating?”

“There isn’t much room in Trost to run around. Wolves need space. Shiganshina seems like a good place, and there are jobs available closeby to satisfy all member of the pack.”

“Wait, what?” Eren asked, wondering if he was understanding correctly. “If you move here you need to bring the pack?”

“That tends to be how it works, yes. Levi can leave on his own, he’s independent enough, but if I leave the area, as a pack leader, the others would need to consider whether they want to venture out alone, join another pack, or follow me here. We have a strong bond, they would likely all follow.”

That wasn’t a comforting thought, having a town full of Werewolves. He wondered how many were in Erwin’s pack and tried to silently count how many empty houses they had for sale in the area. Shit, too many, no one moved to Shiganshina. They were going to be overrun by Werewolves! Not comforting!

“Don’t look so worried, Eren. We’ve all been in Trost for years, and the only mishaps that have ever occurred were during fights, unfortunate events like snoopers,” he jerked his head in Hanji’s snoozing direction, “or unexpected visitors. We can coexist perfectly well with humans.”

Still not comforting, but Eren figured he could always work on talking Levi into forcing Erwin out of this crazy, crazy thought he was having. Maybe it was just in passing. Maybe Erwin would go back home and forget about it because Trost was so much better and more convenient, and nicer than Shiganshina.

“By the way,” Erwin said, almost at Levi’s, “Jean’s single, correct?”

“What?!” Eren demanded, horrified, jerking Hanji awake.

By then, he’d stopped the car in front of Levi’s house. When they’d pulled up, Mikasa and Levi were talking on the porch. Under normal circumstances, he would’ve wondered if Erwin and Hanji could hear them, but given the bomb that had just dropped, he didn’t dwell on it.

Before he could demand an explanation, Erwin climbed out of the car. Eren scrambled to follow just in time for Mikasa to awkwardly reach out and hug Levi. His hug in return looked just as awkward, but in their defence, they had only just found out they were legitimately related.

Not to mention Mikasa had hated him twenty-four hours ago. It was nice they were making an effort.

“Everything okay?” Erwin asked, moving slowly up the porch steps while Eren scrambled up after him, looking crazed.

Mikasa and Levi were pulling apart, looking at him with concern.

“Yes,” Mikasa said slowly. “Is everything okay with you?”

“Oh,” Erwin said dismissively, wrapping an arm around Eren’s shoulders while Hanji yawned and wandered up the porch steps to join them. “Eren and I were just having an interesting chat, nothing to worry about.”

Eren felt this was a _lot_  to worry about! But, while looking at Levi and Mikasa, he felt like one bombshell was enough for the week. He could deal with Erwin’s Jean fixation another time.

“We’re fine,” Eren confirmed. “And you’re fine?” He knew Erwin had already asked, but if he didn’t keep the topic on course, he was going to blurt out that Erwin was trying to get with Jean and he couldn’t handle that thought process right now.

“Yes,” Mikasa said once more, giving him a look he had long ago learned meant they would be having words later. “It’s going to take some time, but we had a nice conversation.”

“I’m glad.” Erwin smiled, releasing his hold on Eren.

“Is it weird having a brother?” Hanji asked, getting right in Mikasa’s face. “Is it? Is it weird being Levi’s sister?”

“I _have_  a brother,” she said dryly, moving away from Hanji so that they weren’t right in her face.

“And in case you haven’t noticed, they’re kind of similar,” Eren insisted, proud of how normal he sounded, and motioning the two of them. “Stoic, attractive, keep the feelings buried deep inside.”

“Stop talking,” Levi insisted, motioning Hanji with a jerk of his head. He probably meant to have him shut up so that Hanji wouldn’t join in with something uncomfortable.

“Oh, does this mean a threesome is on the horizon? Eren can have sex with _both_  Ackerman siblings!”

Like that.

“How are you still alive?” Mikasa asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Because I haven’t figured out how to murder them and make it look accidental yet,” Levi muttered.

Eren tensed, expecting that to be awkward considering Levi’s mother had killed Mikasa’s parents. Levi seemed to be thinking the same thing, because he froze once the words had escaped him, but Mikasa just let out a cute little snort of laughter, punched Levi in the shoulder, then hugged Eren tightly before heading for the car. Erwin clapped a hand on Eren’s shoulder, gave Levi a brief hug, then dragged Hanji away when they tried to leap onto Levi and kiss him.

They watched and waited for the car to pull away and disappear down the street, then headed into the house. Eren was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep, but given the events of the past two days, he couldn’t very well sleep without talking to Levi first.

What came out of his mouth wasn’t what he’d intended.

“Erwin wants to move here because he wants to fuck Jean,” he blurted out.

Levi paused in locking the front door, staring at Eren. “Huh.”

“Huh?!” Eren demanded. “That’s all you have for me?! We are going to turn into a Werewolf town!”

“It means more protection from other Supernaturals,” Levi informed him, following through with locking the door and approaching him. “It’s a good thing. Means the town will be safer.”

“And there’s more risk of people being hurt and turned!”

“We’re careful,” Levi insisted with a sigh. “Don’t worry, the number of Werewolf deaths a year is something like five worldwide. I promise, it’ll be fine.”

“Jean won’t be fine!”

Levi didn’t comment on that one, which wasn’t comforting at all.

“Oh, Jean’s not gonna like this. He’s probably gonna go on vacation and never come back.” Eren blanched. “I need Jean to come back! He’s my best friend!”

“Hey.” Levi reached him and placed his hands on his shoulders. “Jean will come back. Erwin isn’t going to do anything to him without his consent. He’s just a little attached to him because of what they went through. Jean means a lot to him, but if he says no, the answer is no and Erwin will respect that.”

“Are you sure? How do you know?”

“I was gone for a while,” Levi reminded him. “We talked.”

Eren’s mouth fell open. “Oh my God, you _knew_! You knew Erwin likes Jean!”

“Like I said, don’t worry about it.” Levi’s hands moved up to his neck, sliding along his skin. “It’ll be fine.”

Eren didn’t know if he believed that, but he could only hope that Erwin’s crush disappeared on its own. He trusted Levi when he said Erwin wouldn’t do anything to Jean without his consent, but the scent-marking thing _was_  something, and he likely wouldn’t stop.

At least Jean had some time. Erwin had said Mikasa would have to stay away for another two full moons, so he had time to either come to terms or move away.

Eren wouldn’t let him move away.

Shit.

“Jean’s gonna need more therapy,” he said sadly. Levi just snorted a laugh and kissed him lightly, still cupping his face.

“Probably. But Oluo’s great, and he’ll even be closer. Convenient, right?”

Eren just punched Levi in the stomach for that, but the Werewolf didn’t even react. Sighing, he closed his eyes and bent to press his forehead against Levi’s, calming down and remembering what had just happened.

“Was everything okay?” he asked quietly, Levi letting his hands slide off Eren’s face so he could turn the porch light off.

“It was fine,” he said, moving so he could head up the stairs, letting one hand slide down the length of Eren’s arm before releasing him entirely. “Uncomfortable for a time, but she’s a good kid. She understands that what happened wasn’t my fault, and she isn’t going to punish me for my mom being bat-shit crazy, but she’s being honest. She’s still upset, and she’s trying not to blame me for it, but it’ll take time for her to separate the two of us. I understand.”

Eren nodded while following him into the bedroom. “And you?”

“And me what?”

“How do you feel?”

Levi paused beside the bed and seemed to be considering this, as if he wasn’t even sure how he felt. Then, he turned to Eren and smiled a little.

“Happy.”

“Happy?” Eren had never known Levi to be happy. Pleased, maybe. Content, definitely. But happy?

“I have a sister. I have great friends. I have you.”

Levi stalked closer and Eren suddenly felt like a piece of meat with the way he was looking at him.

“Uh...”

When Levi stopped right in front of him, the only thing that stopped Eren from taking a nervous step back was that he was taller than him. Despite knowing he wasn’t _stronger_  than him, he always felt a little better somehow knowing he had height as an advantage. It didn’t do much good against a Werewolf, but it made him feel better anyway.

“You should move in with me.”

“I—what?” Eren asked, feeling like he’d hallucinated those words. They didn’t match the look of hunger on his face.

“You should move in with me. If you want to. You don’t have to, but I think you should. You’re always here anyway. And you even have a drawer now. Just move in with me.”

It felt surreal to be asked that. Eren had never really thought he would amount to anything, let alone have two people vying for his attention—though Annie barely counted anymore. To suddenly be asked that was unexpected, and yet not at the same time, considering how long they’d been dating.

Besides, they were bound. It wasn’t like either of them would be going anywhere, and as worried as living with Levi made him feel, he knew that it would be different and exciting.

Even if he had to make the bed every day. He fucking hated making the bed.

“Okay,” Eren said.

He hadn’t noticed before, but he did now when Levi relaxed at hearing him say yes. He’d been tense, as if worried about the answer.

“But,” Eren held a finger up, “we’re gonna have to talk about a few things.”

“Of course,” Levi said.

“The most important question I have is,” he pointed the finger at Levi, “you’re house-trained, right? I don’t want you piddling on the carpet where I might step on it.”

The look he got was absolutely murderous and he let out a shout when he found himself sailing through the air. He landed on the bed, almost bouncing right off it but managing to save himself. He was probably helped by the fact that Levi jumped onto him a moment later, pinning his hands up above his head and looking down at him. His expression seemed angry, but his eyes were bright and kept flicking down to Eren’s lips.

Besides, Eren wasn’t worried. Levi would never hurt him.

Even if he kept making dog jokes.

“You’re not as funny as you think you are.”

“Are you mad because I didn’t let you have the bone in my steak from dinner yesterday?” he asked with a grin.

Levi growled and bent down, kissing him with much more softness than Eren had expected, considering he literally looked like he wanted to eat him. When he pulled away, he rubbed his cheek against one of Eren’s for a few seconds. Once he was satisfied, he ran the tip of his nose along the bridge of Eren’s.

“Careful Jaeger,” he said in a low voice, “or you’ll find _yourself_  dinner.”

“No way.” Eren grinned, Levi’s lips brushing against his cheek and then down to his throat, pressing against his pulse. His hands were slowly sliding down Eren’s arms and he really liked where this was going. Tired or not, he was always up for sex with Levi. “I’m not in any danger of being dinner. Too chewy. Besides, you love me too much.”

“True.” Levi pulled away from his neck and kissed him again. “But still,” he smiled at him, pressing their foreheads together and closing his eyes, “you look good enough to eat.”

  
Art by Keyvvi

**THE END.**

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Hollow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12309654) by [Heichous_Poncho](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heichous_Poncho/pseuds/Heichous_Poncho)




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